;-NRLF 


QUESTIONS  OF  THE  DAY.     No.  XLIII. 


SLAV  OR  SAXON 


A    STUDY    OF    THE    GROWTH    AND    TENDENCIES    OF 
RUSSIAN    CIVILIZATION 


BY 


WM.  D.  FOULKE,  A.M. 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S   SONS 

®be  fmicherbochcr  ^rtss 
1891 


0  3  7995 

COPY   .DOED 
wHiC,vr>  J/^l  TO  RP 
RETAINED 


COPYRIGHT    BY 

WM.  D.  *OULKE 
1887 


Press  of 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
New  York 


AMONG  the  publications  written  during  the  last  few 
years  to  which,  in  the  preparation  of  this  brief  work,  I 
have  been  under  obligations,  are  "  L'  Empire  des  Tsar  et 
les  Russes,"  by  Leroy-Beaulieu,  (1886)  ;  Rambaud's  "  His- 
tory of  Russia  "  ;  Stepniak's  "  Russia  under  the  Tsars," 
"  Underground  Russia,"  and  "  The  Russian  Storm  Cloud  "  ; 
Vambery's  articles  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  entitled 
"Will  Russia  Conquer  India?";  "The  Russians  at  the 
Gates  of  Herat,"  by  Charles  Marvin ;  and  Tissot's  "  Rus- 
ses et  Allemands,"  as  well  as  Wallace's  "  Russia,"  and 
Dixon's  "  Free  Russia,"  published  some  years  earlier, 
the  literature  upon  the  subject  is  comprehensive,  and  I 
have  drawn  freely  from  many  sources,  but  more  especially 
from  the  foregoing. 

RICHMOND,  IND.,  Sept.  28,  1887. 


M61974 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I. — THE  COMING  STRUGGLE i 

II. — THE  TERRITORY  OF  RUSSIA        .         .         .         .  n 

III. — THE  RUSSIAN  PEOPLE         .         .         .         .       ...  21 

IV. — THE  MILITARY  AUTOCRACY        ....  36 

V. — RUSSIAN  CONQUESTS  AND  AGGRESSIONS     .         .  43 
VI. — THE  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA   .         .         .         .         .61 

VII. — THE  REFORMS  OF  ALEXANDER  II.    .         .         .  95 

VIII. — THE  PRESENT  DESPOTISM in 

IX. — CONCLUSION 135 


SLAV   OR   SAXON. 


CHAPTER    I.  vHI  *'.''*' 

THE    COMING    STRUGGLE.*-  —  * 

IT  was  said  in  an  article  published  in  the  S/.  Petersburg 
Novoe  Vremya,  about  a  year  ago,  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
had  recently  uttered  these  words  :  "  I  like  Russia,  not 
without  reason.  I  recognize  in  her  a  true  and  logical  ally 
of  England.  The  vital  resources  of  the  states  of  Europe 
are  rapidly  becoming  exhausted.  Their  bone  and  sinew 
are  going  to  Asia,  Africa,  and  America.  But  long  ex- 
perience proves  that  there  are  only  two  nations  who  know 
how  to  colonize — England  and  Russia.  The  other  nations 
totally  lack  this  quality.  Therefore  England  and  Russia 
only  have  a  future.  The  other  powers  are  on  the  decline. 
The  time  is  not  far  off  when  Germany  and  France  will 
disappear  from  the  horizon  of  first-class  powers.  I  hold, 
therefore,  that  it  is  bad  policy  for  England  and  Russia 
to  quarrel.  Let  us  look  at  the  question  from  the  stand- 
point of  mere  profit.  Where  are  the  principal  interests  of 
Russia?  In  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  And  ours?  In  India 
and  Africa.  Therefore  we  might  easily  and  advantageously 


2  Slav  or  Saxon. 

to  both,  draw  our  limits.  We  prefer  Russia  as  an  ally, 
also,  because  she  has  already  land  enough  to  last  her  for 
centuries.  Russia  is  the  most  powerful  country  on  land, 
and  England  is  the  most  powerful  country  on  sea.  In 
this  difference  there  is  a  mutual  guaranty  of  our  friend- 
ship." 

Whether  Mr.  Gladstone  said  these  things  or  not,  the 
thought  that  England  and  Russia  are  to  be  the  two  great 
nh.(i<?ns  of /the/Qlct  World,  is  one  which  must  have  oc- 
cunreciL  to  ^tfipse  wha  have  watched  the  development  of 
ib.ej  ^xeat  Vjfo^t3ibnv  tplower,  ancj  contrasted  it  with  the 
growth  of  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  and  with  that  of  the 
remainder  of  continental  Europe.  The  only  mistake  is 
the  belief  that  the  Slav  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  can  continue 
to  colonize  and  to  conquer  without  collision.  These  two 
great  branches  of  the  Aryan  stock,  so  different  in  charac- 
ter, customs,  political  life,  and  modes  of  thought,  will 
never  hold  in  harmony  the  divided  sovereignty  of  the 
Eastern  Continent.  The  deep-seated  jealousy  and  ill-will 
which  England  and  Russia  show  toward  each  other,  have  a 
basis  more  logical  than  the  conclusions  of  Mr.  Gladstone; 
and  sooner  or  later  must  come  that  struggle  for  dominion 
which  shall  determine  whether  the  civilization  of  the  Slav 
or  that  of  the  Saxon  shall  be  the  civilization  of  the  world. 

It  is  not  easy  for  us  in  America  to  realize  the  gravity  of 
the  crisis.  The  nearness  of  our  own  forms  of  civilization 
shuts  out  from  view  the  growth  of  the  type  which  is 
more  distant,  or  if  we  see  it,  we  do  not  allow  enough  for 
the  perspective.  Russia  is  a  long  way  off.  Her  ideas  are 
so  outlandish,  so  semi-barbarous,  so  undesirable  in  every 


The  Coming  Struggle.  3 

way,  according  to  our  thinking,  that  we  do  not  see  how 
they  can  be  forced  down  the  throat  of  humanity.  Our 
own  forms  of  social  life  are  so  much  higher  and  better, 
that  we  feel  sure  that  they  must  ultimately  survive. 

But  although  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  pre- 
vails in  social,  as  well  as  in  organic  life,  this  does  not  always 
mean  the  survival  of  the  highest  type.  In  animal  life 
many  highly  developed  organisms  have  disappeared, 
while  some  of  the  simplest  and  crudest  types  exist  to-day. 
So  in  history  we  find  that  many  intellectual  races  have 
fallen  a  prey  to  barbarians.  No  one  would  have  believed 
in  the  Rome  of  the  Antonines,  that  the  stretch  of  her  uni- 
versal empire  would  be  invaded,  her  legions  overthrown, 
and  her  civilization  all  but  extinguished  by  the  half-naked 
and  undisciplined  hordes  of  Germany  and  Scythia,  that 
same  Scythia  which  is  now  creeping  stealthily  into  the 
Balkan  peninsula  and  across  the  plains  of  Central  Asia; 
no  one  would  have  dreamed  that  the  wealth  and  refine- 
ment of  mediaeval  India  would  become  a  prey  to  the  wild 
tribes  of  Tartary,  that  same  Tartary  through  which  Russia 
to-day  is  working  her  way  for  another  and  more  lasting 
conquest.  The  history  of  Russia  herself  furnishes  several 
instances  of  high  types  of  liberalism  and  culture,  trodden 
down  and  stamped  out  by  the  brute  force  of  barbarism. 
The  Khazarui,  a  liberal  and  enlightened  people  of  the 
South  of  Russia,  who  in  the  middle  ages  maintained  inti- 
mate relations  with  Byzantium  and  Bagdad  and  Cordova, 
who  built  great  cities,  who  established  flourishing  schools, 
who  tolerated  all  religions,  were  crushed  out  and  swept 
away  by  the  barbarous  peoples  around  them.  It  is,  then, 


4  Slav  or  Saxon. 

no  answer  to  say  that  because  Russian  culture  is  inferior 
to  that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  that  the  Russian  race  must 
go  under  in  the  struggle.  The  question  is  this :  does 
Russia  possess  those  conditions  of  physical  force  which 
insure  its  future  supremacy  ?  The  characteristics  of  the 
land,  and  of  the  race  which  inhabits  it,  furnish  great  food 
for  thought. 

First  of  all,  it  is  evident  enough,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  says, 
that  among  the  nations  of  the  Eastern  Continent,  England 
and  Russia  only  have  a  future.  The  diminutive  area  of 
the  remainder  of  continental  Europe  is  not  large  enough 
to  grow  in.  No  people  can  acquire  a  lasting  supremacy 
who  are  pent  up  within  boundaries  as  narrow  as  those  of 
any  country  in  Western  Europe.  Indeed,  we  can  see 
everywhere,  except  in  England,  America,  and  Russia, 
signs  that  the  limits  of  growth  are  not  far  off.  Leaving 
out  of  the  question  all  mere  barbarous  communities,  and 
those  smaller  peoples  whose  national  unity  is  scarcely 
strong  enough  to  protect  them  from  the  aggressions  of 
their  neighbors ;  passing  by  such  forms  of  nationality  as 
the  Ottoman  and  Persian  empires,  which  are  visibly  tot- 
tering to  ruin,  or  the  Chinese,  crystallized  for  centuries 
and  incapable  of  growth,  we  come  to  such  types  as  those 
furnished  by  the  Latin  races.  Take  Spain,  for  example. 
Spain  grew  with  marvellous  rapidity.  It  was  but  a  life- 
time from  the  anarchy  which  preceded  the  reign  of 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  to  the  great  empire  of  Charles  V.  ; 
but  under  the  influence  of  a  baleful  ecclesiasticism,  the 
work  of  decay  was  as  rapid  as  that  of  growth.  Spain  had 
a  boundless  empire  in  the  New  World,  and  she  tried  to 


T/ie  Coming  Struggle.  5 

colonize,  but  failed.  The  elements  of  progress  were 
wanting,  disintegration  began,  one  colony  after  another 
dropped  away,  the  defects  of  the  parent  stock  repeated 
themselves  in  the  offspring,  and  in  the  Spanish-American 
colonies,  with  new  land  and  new  political  institutions,  we 
have  the  premature  old  age  inherited  with  Spanish  blood. 
In  Spain  itself  every  thing  reminds  us  of  past  greatness 
and  present  weakness.  It  is  a  land  of  memory,  not  of 
hope. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  France  has  seen  its  best 
days.  That  nation  has  played  a  brilliant  part  in  history. 
The  warlike  instincts  of  the  people,  their  keenness  of  in- 
tellect, their  nervous  energy,  the  elegance  of  their  man- 
ners, their  high  rank  in  all  that  pertains  to  material  civili- 
zation, the  progress  of  their  liberal  thought,  and  their 
present  republican  institutions,  show  little  signs  of  decay. 
Yet  the  French  people  of  to-day  are  physically  inferior  to 
their  ancestors.  The  wars  of  Napoleon  made  terrible 
ravages  with  their  best  types  of  manhood,  while  the  prev- 
alent licentiousness  which  is  ingrained  in  their  literature 
as  well  as  in  their  lives,  gives  us  reason  to  fear  that  the 
French  race  is  not  growing.  They  do  not  assimilate  well 
with  other  peoples,  They  cannot  colonize.  In  Canada, 
in  Louisiana,  in  India,  in  South  America,  in  the  West 
Indies,  they  have  failed.  Their  conquests  are  never  per- 
manent. They  dazzle,  but  the  light  soon  goes  out.  The 
territory  of  France  to-day  is  confined  within  narrower 
boundaries  than  those  of  ancient  Gaul ;  there  is  no  room 
to  hope  for  a  great  future.  The  rate  of  natural  increase 
of  their  population  is  very  small.  It  may  well  be  that  the 


6  Slav  or  Saxon. 

backward  step  taken  in  the  late  war  with  Germany  is  but 
the  beginning  of  the  end. 

The  great  problem  of  Italian  unity  having  been  solved, 
that  kingdom  shows  new  signs  of  life;  but  it  is  not  yet  a 
first-class  power,  and  there  is  no  indication  that  its  vitality 
will  extend  much  beyond  the  peninsula  which  it  occupies. 
It  is  limited,  like  France  and  Germany,  by  natural  boun- 
daries, both  of  territory  and  race. 

There  is  probably  no  great  nation  in  the  world  whose 
power  hangs  upon  a  slenderer  thread  than  that  of  Austria. 
Composed  of  a  number  of  widely  different  races,  there 
seems  to  be  a  lack  of  the  power  of  welding  them  together, 
and  the  very  existence  of  the  monarchy  is  continually 
threatened  with  the  possible  disruption  of  its  incongruous 
parts.  Possessing,  like  France  and  Germany,  a  territory 
easily  invaded,  the  most  that  can  be  expected  is  that  it 
will  retain,  for  a  limited  time  only,  its  present  status. 
During  this  generation,  it  has  been  stripped  of  its  hegem- 
ony in  the  German  Confederation  and  of  its  Italian 
possessions,  and  has  obtained  but  a  poor  compensa- 
tion in  the  control  of  semi-barbarous  Bosnia.  The  Aus- 
trian dynasty  is  the  oldest  in  Europe,  and  the  nation,  if 
nation  it  can  be  called,  betrays,  most  plainly  of  all,  the 
weaknesses  of  old  age. 

Germany,  of  late,  has  made  great  strides  toward  power 
and  leadership  in  Europe.  The  patience  and  high  in- 
tellectual attainments  of  the  German  people,  the  admir- 
able organization  of  the  German  army,  and  the  genius  of 
the  Great  Chancellor,  place  it  for  the  moment  at  the  head 
of  European  nations.  But  Germany  has  not  yet  shown 


The  Coming  Struggle.  7 

any  ability  to  leap  across  ethnological  barriers.  Its  ter- 
ritory, situated  in  the  heart  of  Europe,  and  densely 
peopled,  does  not  furnish  any  great  natural  facilities  for. 
repelling  aggressions,  and  the  Germans  do  not  colonize. 
The  system  of  "  the  balance  of  power,"  so  long  recognized 
in  Europe,  will  not  permit  the  conquest  of  adjoining  na- 
tions by  Germany  ad  libitum.  It  will  not  allow  the  growth 
of  the  German  people  much  faster  than  by  natural  multi- 
plication. The  density  of  population  is  such,  that  this 
growth  will  press  too  closely  upon  subsistence  to  be  very 
great.  Much  of  the  best  blood  of  Germany  is  passing  to 
America  to  be  absorbed  by  us.  There  is  reason  to  think 
that  German  power  is  not  far  from  its  culmination  ;  there 
is  certainly  a  near  limit,  beyond  which  it  cannot  pass. 
The  Germans  themselves  seem  to  be  conscious  of  this. 
We  can  see  this  feeling  in  their  late  efforts  to  drive  the 
wedge  of  colonization  into  the  Carolines,  the  Samoan 
Islands,  the  Congo  country,  New  Guinea,  anywhere,  to 
give  themselves  more  room.  But  they  can  only  colonize 
by  sea,  and  there  Great  Britain  holds  them  at  her  mercy. 
The  English  industrial  system  is  such  as  to  guarantee  to 
Great  Britain  a  greater  growth  in  wealth  than  that  of  any 
nation  on  the  continent,  and  this  will  insure  her  pre- 
ponderance at  sea.  The  limits  of  German  progress  have 
been  fixed  by  an  inexorable  law  which  even  the  genius  of 
Bismarck  cannot  evade.  The  only  three  great  peoples 
that  remain  are  the  Americans,  the  English,  and  the  Rus- 
sians. All  three  have  this  common  advantage  :  they  have 
unlimited  facilities  for  growth.  They  can  extend  their 
dominion  either  by  conquest  or  peaceful  colonization 


8  Slav  or  Saxon. 

into  parts  of  the  world  where  it  will  not  be  limited  by  the 
jealousy  and  balance-of-power  statesmanship  of  neighbor- 
ing peoples.  They  have  not  only  the  physical  ability  to 
grow,  but  they  have  also  an  inherent  capacity  for  coloni- 
zation. The  progress  of  the  United  States  has  been  the 
most  rapid,  but  our  activity  is  limited  to  the  Western 
Continent.  We  are  happily  freed  by  our  unquestionable 
supremacy  in  America  from  those  international  struggles 
which  distract  the  other  hemisphere,  and  we  can  move 
along  in  the  paths  of  our  internal  development  with  little 
fear  of  foreign  interference  or  invasion.  But  the  Eastern 
Continent  possesses  twice  the  area  and  nearly  ten  times 
the  population  of  the  Western.  The  struggle  for  the 
supremacy  of  the  world  must  be  fought  there,  and  the 
great  colossi  who  will  contest  it  with  each  other  are 
England  and  Russia.  The  future  world  is  to  be  Slav  or 
Saxon. 

This  struggle  is  coming  sooner  than  it  would  seem,  if 
we  compare  it  with  the  slow  development  of  nations  and 
races  in  the  past.  Not  that  we  shall  live  to  see  it ;  it  may 
be  generations  ahead  of  us,  but  the  rapidity  of  social 
changes  to-day  is  as  much  greater  than  that  of  like  changes 
in  past  ages,  as  the  speed  of  the  locomotive  is  greater 
than  that  of  the  coach  or  caravan.  We  are  scarcely  yet 
able  to  realize  the  gigantic  strides  which  civilization  has 
made  within  our  own  times.  We  do  as  much  now  in  ten 
years  as  the  ancient  world  did  in  a  thousand.  If  we  look 
over  the  map  of  our  boyhood,  we  can  hardly  recognize  it. 
Take  our  own  country.  We  used  to  see  an  enormous 
tract  called  the  "  Great  American  Desert."  Whither  has 


The  Coming  Struggle.  9 

it  gone  ?  The  vast  blank  on  the  map  of  Central  Africa, 
that  was  marked  "  unexplored,"  what  has  become  of 
it  ?  We  see  a  network  of  innumerable  railways,  over 
prairies  which  were  then  unknown.  A  ship  canal  is 
soon  to  unite  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  as  one  already 
joins  the  Indian  Ocean  with  the  Mediterranean.  The 
time  was  when  it  took  a  century  to  civilize  a  tribe,  a! 
thousand  years  to  develop  a  province.  Now  a  single 
generation  seems  too  long  for  a  whole  continent.  If  this 
continues  in  like  geometrical  progression,  the  time  is  not 
far  off  when  neither  the  sands  of  Sahara  nor  the  inter- 
minable snows  that  skirt  the  Frozen  Ocean,  neither  the 
wastes  of  Tartary  nor  the  forests  that  conceal  the  sources 
of  the  Amazon  will  hide  any  longer  within  their  depths, 
mere  primeval  solitude  and  barbarism,  but  everywhere 
the  earth  will  teem  with  the  manifold  forms  of  civilized 
life,  the  great  engines  of  commerce,  the  steamship,  the 
iron  road,  the  telegraph,  the  school,  the  library,  the  press, 
the  church,  the  court-house,  the  theatre,  the  army,  the 
cannon,  the  torpedo,  the  rum-shop,  the  fruits  both  sweet 
and  bitter  of  the  great  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil. 

The  great  struggle  between  the  Slav  and  the  Saxon  is 
not  very  far  away.  Its  coming  is  already  faintly  visible. 
We  see  nothing  now  but  a  cloud  the  size  of  a  man's  hand, 
but  the  air  is  pregnant  with  a  storm  which  will  darken 
the  whole  sky.  The  difficulties  in  Afghanistan  and  Bul- 
garia are  only  the  faintest  premonitory  murmurs ;  the 
real  evidence  of  the  coming  struggle  is  the  massing  of  the 
social  forces  on  either  side.  There  may  be  a  dozen  con- 


io  Slav  or  Saxon. 

flicts,  followed  by  a  dozen  reconciliations  ;  they  would 
mean  little  except  for  the  vast  powers  looming  up  behind. 
The  struggle  is  to  be  avoided,  not  by  establishing  a 
"  scientific  frontier,"  nor  by  seizing  this  or  that  military 
post,  but  by  a  disintegration  of  those  forces  in  the  domin- 
ions of  the  Czar  which  threaten  the  future  peace  and 
well-being  of  mankind.  The  hope  of  coming  times  lies  in 
the  overthrow  of  the  centralized  despotism,  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  civil  liberty  in  Russia,  and  in  the  substitution 
of  industrial  methods  for  its  present  military  system. 

Let  us  review  these  marshalling  forces  and  see  whether 
the  picture  is  overdrawn,  or  the  danger  is  overestimated. 
Let  us  look  at  the  future  of  England  and  Russia,  in  the 
light  of  what  we  know  of  their  past.  Let  us  examine  the 
resources  of  the  empire  of  the  Czars,  in  respect  to  territory, 
population,  wealth,  military  appliances,  and  other  material 
and  intellectual  advantages  and  deficiencies.  Let  us  look 
at  the  growth  of  Russia  and  see,  if  we  can,  whither  its 
future  tends. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   TERRITORY.  OF   RUSSIA. 

IN  the  matter  of  land,  Russia  possesses  nearly  one  sixth 
of  the  entire  world,  and  her  territory  is  continually  grow- 
ing larger  by  conquest  and  colonization.  Her  possessions 
are  greater  in  extent  than  those  of  any  other  nation  that 
exists  to-day,  or  any  which  has  ever  existed.  With  the 
gradual  filling  up  of  the  world,  this  question  of  land  is 
becoming  more  and  more  important.  The  mere  quantity 
of  earth  seems  to  be  the  only  thing  which  remains  con- 
stant. If  there  be  only  space  enough,  the  same  skill  which 
redeemed  Holland  from  the  sea,  which  consigned  the 
Great  American  Desert  to  the  realms  of  imagination, 
which  built  St.  Petersburg  upon  a  marsh,  and  Archangel 
upon  the  shores  of  the  Frozen  Ocean,  seems  able  every- 
where to  transmute  that  space  into  a  productive  agent  for 
supplying  the  wants  of  man.  The  most  inhospitable  rock 
yields  ore  of  priceless  value.  The  swamp  and  bog  contain 
the  choicest  soil ;  the  very  Arctic  teems  with  exhaustless 
life.  Sahara  itself  needs  nothing  but  the  enterprise  and 
skill  of  future  generations  to  be  transformed  into  a  gar- 
den. So  long  as  a  nation  grows,  the  value  of  its  land 
continues  to  increase.  The  time  has  been  when  the 


12  Slav  or  Saxon. 

richest  soil  of  Russia  had  no  value.  The  time  will  come 
when  the  wastes  of  Turkestan  and  the  forests  of  Siberia 
will  be  as  valuable  as  the  plains  of  Central  Russia  are  to- 
day. Formerly  great  extent  of  territorial  possessions  was 
an  element  of  political  weakness.  The  forces  of  the  state 
were  scattered  over  a  wide  region  where  communication 
was  impossible.  When  a  province  was  attacked,  it  took 
too  long  to  hear  from  it,  too  long  to  send  assistance.  By 
the  time  thought  was  interchanged,  the  conditions  were 
all  different. 

The  Emperor  Adrian  relinquished  vast  provinces  be- 
cause it  weakened  Rome  to  defend  them.  But  now  in  a 
week  we  can  make  the  journey  of  a  year  ;  in  the  trans- 
mission of  thought,  space  is  annihilated  altogether.  The 
extent  of  its  territory  is  the  strongest  security  of  Russian 
despotism ;  it  prevents  opposing  forces  from  concentrating, 
while  the  central  authority,  which  controls  the  avenues  of 
communication,  can  speedily  bring  its  whole  force  to  bear 
upon  a  single  point  anywhere  in  its  dominions. 

Not  only  does  the  Russian  Empire  stand  pre-eminent 
in  mere  extent  of  territory,  it  is  equally  remarkable  for 
the  homogeneity  of  its  possessions.  "  Its  principal  char- 
acteristic is  unity  in  immensity."  Western  Europe  is 
broken  by  mountain  ranges  and  divided  by  seas,  gulfs,  and 
bays;  there  is  diversity  everywhere.  Commerce  is  largely 
external,  agriculture  is  of  every  kind,  natural  barriers 
separate  great  countries  like  Spain,  England,  Scandinavia, 
and  Italy  from  the  rest.  But  the  Europe  of  Russia  is  one 
vast  plain.  The  same  physical  unity  prevails  in  Siberia 
and  Turkestan.  "  Russia  in  Asia  is  not  an  exotic  colony 


The  Territory  of  Russia.  13 

impossible  to  assimilate  or  difficult  to  keep.  It  is  a  pro- 
longation and  natural  dependence  of  their  European 
territories." 

The  monotOiiy  and  level  character  of  the  land  is  not 
with  jut  its  influence  upon  the  temperament  of  the  people. 
The  lack  of  originality  and  individuality  noticed  by 
travellers  in  Russia  is  partly  due  to  this  cause.  From  an 
industrial  point  of  view  this  unity  has  its  disadvantages  ; 
the  employments  of  the  people  are  not  diversified.  Russia 
is  too  much  an  agricultural  state.  But  from  a  political 
point  of  view  nothing  could  be  better  adapted  to  the  con- 
centration of  power.  The  people  become  a  unit  like  the 
land,  their  occupations  are  the  same,  their  thoughts,  their 
aspirations.  They  are  much  more  easily  subjected  to  the 
control  of  a  single  will.  Their  separate  interests  are  not 
blowing  toward  every  quarter  like  the  winds  from  the 
cave  of  Eolus. 

There  is,  however,  one  great  variety  in  nature — the 
change  of  the  seasons.  It  is  only  a  few  weeks  from 
the  bitter  cold  of  an  arctic  winter  to  the  heat  of  a 
summer  which  is  more  than  tropical.  The  transfor- 
mation of  nature  is  brilliant  and  startling.  The  winters 
are  dazzling,  the  nights  of  summer  are  one  long  twi- 
light. The  peasants'  songs  of  spring,  which  celebrate 
the  arrival  of  the  "  birds  from  paradise,"  the  harvest 
melodies,  which  have  for  their  theme  the  sudden  ripen- 
ing of  the  grain,  and  the  songs  of  autumn,  lamenting  the 
departure  of  all  fruitfulness  in  nature,  are  evidences  of  the 
effect  upon  the  Russian  temperament  of  these  transforma- 
tions. The  flexibility  of  Russian  character  owes  much  to 


14  Slav  or  Saxon. 

these  sudden  changes.  If  they  lack  originality  in  intellect, 
there  is  great  originality  in  their  feelings,  tastes,  and 
habits.  The  irinumerable  sects  of  religious  fanatics,  the 
strange  types  of  character  of  which  Ivan  the  Terrible  and 
Peter  the  Great  are  illustrations,  the  capacity  of  the 
Russians  for  tremendous  efforts  upon  occasions  rather 
than  for  sustained  endeavor,  are  not  without  relation  to 
their  long  winters  of  torpor  and  inactivity,  and  their  short, 
burning  summers,  when  the  work  of  a  year  must  be  com- 
pressed into  a  few  brief  months.  To  this,  in  part,  may 
also  be  due  the  twofold  character  remarked  by  students  of 
Russian  life,  the  excesses  of  liberalism  and  conservatism, 
of  veneration  and  cynicism,  of  hope  and  despondency,  of 
intelligence  and  ignorance;  the  boldness  in  projects  of 
reform,  the  timidity  in  execution.  These  contradictions, 
however,  are  modified  by  the  practical  good-sense  of  the 
Russians,  their  tendency  to  realism  rather  than  abstract 
thought,  their  leaning  toward  physical  science  rather  than 
intellectual  philosophy.  In  all  these  things  the  nation 
shows  the  impulses  and  tendencies  of  childhood,  and 
further  culture  and  development  may  correct  its  short- 
comings. The  desire  for  reforms  of  a  tangible  and  physi- 
cal nature  remind  one  much  of  the  same  tendency  among 
our  own  people.  With  greater  education  and  more  lib- 
erty the  Russians  would  hardly  be  behind  us  in  this 
respect. 

The  introduction  of  steam  for  travel  and  transportation 
will  give  greater  advantages  to  Russia  than  to  any  other 
country.  Its  weakness  in  early  days  was  its  want  of  ac- 
cess to  the  sea.  It  was  to  remedy  this  that  Peter  the 


The  Territory  of  Russia.  1 5 

Great  conquered  the  Baltic  provinces  and  built  St.  Peters- 
burg. It  was  in  great  part  for  this  that  he  and  Catharine 
and  Nicholas  plotted  to  overthrow  the  Ottoman  Empire, 
to  gain  possession  of  the  Bosphorus.  But  in  these  latter 
days,  when  communication  by  land  is  easier  and  swifter 
than  by  sea,  this  disadvantage  is  scarcely  felt.  From  her 
present  position  Russia  could  overrun  the  whole  Eastern ; 
Continent  without  a  navy.  For  the  purposes  of  interna-' 
tional,  as  well  as  internal  commerce,  the  railroad  will  soon 
supersede  the  ship  and  the  steamer.  In  a  struggle  between 
England  and  Russia  the  maritime  supremacy  of  England 
would  be  of  little  avail. 

Not  only  has  Russia  a  vast  extent  of  dominion,  but  a 
considerable  portion  of  her  territory  is  the  most  fertile 
land  in  the  world.  Across  European  Russia  extend,  from 
Northeast  to  Southwest,  three  great  belts — the  forests,  the 
black  land,  and  the  steppes.  Over  the  entire  North  of 
Russia  extend  these  great  forests.  Many  of  the  oldest 
cities  have  been  built  in  the  clearings.  In  the  extreme 
North  the  land  is  barren,  elsewhere  it  is  fairly  productive. 
South  of  the  forests  comes  the  great  belt  of  black  land. 
There  is  no  richer  soil  anywhere.  It  has  been  farmed  for 
centuries  without  fertilization  ;  but  the  most  ruinous  sys- 
tem of  agriculture  has  failed  to  weaken  its  powers.  "  A 
little  rest,"  as  the  farmers  call  it,  has  been  all  that  has 
been  needed.  South  of  the  black  land  extend  the 
steppes,  the  prairies  of  Russia,  where  the  grass  grows 
higher  than  men's  heads.  The  Northern  part  of  these 
prairies  is  also  fertile  ;  to  the  South  they  are  adapted  to 
pasturage  only.  The  barren  lands  were  formerly  the 


1 6  Slav  or  Saxon. 

depths  of  a  great  inland  sea.  The  area  of  this  district 
is  much  less  than  that  of  the  fertile  steppes. 

These  great  belts  are  prolonged  into  Siberia.  In  the 
early  history  of  Russia  the  South  line  of  the  forests  was 
the  boundary  line  which  divided  the  agricultural  from 
the  nomad  population,  the  Russians  from  the  Tartars,  the 
Muscovites  from  the  Cossacks.  In  the  forests,  the  popu- 
latibn  grows  more  slowly  than  farther  South,  and  the  peas- 
ants add  to  their  farming  a  great  variety  of  little  industries 
in  their  agricultural  villages,  in  which  they  engage  during 
the  long  winter  when  there  can  be  no  labor  in  the  field. 
More  fruitful  in  agricultural  promise  are  the  unwooded 
zones  of  the  South,  which  are  increased  from  year  to  year 
by  the  cutting  away  of  the  forests. 

The  black  land  and  the  Northern  steppes,  like  our  basin 
of  the  Mississippi,  constitute  one  of  those  great  storehouses 
of  grain  which  seem  to  guarantee  an  unlimited  supply  for 
the  future.  The  fertile  steppes,  like  our  prairies,  are  a 
vast  sea  of  verdure,  which  is  gradually  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  husbandmen.  It  is  destined  to  be  conquered, 
little  by  little,  from  the  nomadic  Cossacks  by  the  peasants 
who  live  just  to  the  North,  until  "  the  steppes  of  Gogol,  as 
in  America  the  prairie  of  Cooper,  will  soon  be  nothing 
but  a  remembrance." 

During  thousands  of  years,  the  great  migrations  from 
Asia  into  Europe  have  passed  across  these  plains,  and  until 
the  present  century,  the  steppes  have  remained  exposed  to 
the  encroachments  of  nomads.  The  settlement  of  much 
of  the  best  land  in  Russia  has  been  thus  delayed.  It  has 
been  since  the  subjugation  of  the  Crimean  Tartars  and 


The  Territory  of  Russia.  17 

the  Kirghis  of  the  Caspian  that  this  vast  region  has  become 
secure  for  the  development  of  systematic  agriculture.  Two 
natural  obstacles  remain — the  absence  of  trees  and  the 
great  dryness  of  the  climate.  But  the  discovery  of  oil  and 
coal  in  these  regions,  and  the  improved  facilities  for  com- 
merce, a.re  soon  to  furnish  the  steppes  of  Russia  with  suf- 
ficient fuel  and  building  material,  while  the  planting  of 
trees,  which  is  even  now  commenced  in  some  places,  is 
likely  to  overcome  the  seasons  of  barrenness  occasioned  by 
the  excessive  drought. 

The  present  system  of  agriculture  is  very  wasteful. 
Large  tracts  are  abandoned  successively  every  few  years 
by  the  nomad  tribes,  who  farm  them  in  most  primitive 
fashion.  But  the  Cossack  villages  of  tents  are  being 
gradually  transformed  into  more  permanent  villages  of 
Russian  peasants. 

The  mineral  resources  of  Russia  are  almost  wholly  un- 
developed, though  we  know  that  rich  mines  of  gold,  sil- 
ver, lead,  copper,  and  platinum  lie  hidden  in  the  depths 
of  the  Ural  and  Altai  mountains.  These  regions  seem 
destined  to  open  up  a  new  civilization  in  the  same  way  as 
California  and  Australia. 

At  a  time  when  water-power  was  so  essential  to  manu- 
factures, Russia  was  behindhand  in  this  great  department 
of  industry ;  but  now  that  steam  has  usurped  the  place  of 
this  old  motive-power,  her  advantages  are  equal  to  any. 
In  natural  facilities  for  agriculture,  commerce,  and  manu- 
factures, as  well  as  in  mineral  resources,  Russia  is  not  in- 
ferior to  the  most  favored  nations.  Her  natural  produc- 
tions render  her  wholly  self-sustaining.  If  the  ports  of 


1 8  Slav  or  Saxon. 

every  civilized  nation  were  closed  against  her,  Russia  would 
feel  the  loss  less  than  any  country  in  the  world.  In  this, 
too,  we  see  a  great  advantage  in  a  military  point  of  view. 

There  is  some  drawback  in  the  matter  of  climate  ;  the 
whole  of  Russia  and  Siberia  is  subject  to  intense  cold  in 
winter.  The  heat  of  summer  is  scarcely  less  intense  ;  the 
climate  has  great  extremes.  The  Northern  plains  of 
Siberia,  stretching  away  into  the  Arctic  Circle,  as  \vell 
as  a  considerable  portion  of  Northern  Russia,  seem  un- 
inhabitable. In  the  whole  North  the  period  of  vegeta- 
tion is  shorter,  and  the  product  of  the  earth  more  limited 
on  that  account.  It  looks  to  us  now  as  though  a  great 
part  of  Russia  must  always  remain  a  waste.  But  it  is 
probable  that  we  little  know  the  powers  of  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  future  for  utilizing  the  most  dreary  and  bar- 
ren regions.  The  ancient  world  would  never  have  dreamed 
that  a  great  city  could  be  built  on  the  shores  of  the  White 
Sea.  Russia  has  one  compensation  for  this  climate:  It 
has  produced  a  race,  hardy,  patient,  and  energetic  ;  the 
only  civilized  beings  who  can  endure  the  rigors  of  its 
dreadful  winters.  The  perseverance  of  Russian  colonists 
and  soldiers  in  overcoming  obstacles  which  would  be  in- 
surmountable to  others,  has  long  been  recognized  by  the 
world. 

Herbert  Spencer  says  that  the  earliest  civilization  began 
in  warm  countries,  where  men  did  not  have  to  wrestle 
with  the  elements  for  life  alone  ;  where  there  was  some 
surplus  energy  for  the  formation  of  society ;  but  that  as 
civilization  went  on,  and  as  the  means  of  overcoming 
natural  objects  became  greater,  the  highest  social  devel- 


The  Territory  of  Russia.  19 

opment  moved  into  colder  regions,  where  natural  ob- 
stacles brought  out  a  corresponding  energy,  which  not 
only  overcame  them,  but  strengthened  the  type.  It  is 
rather  Northward  than  Westward  that  the  course  of  em- 
pire moves ;  beginning  in  India,  Egypt,  and  Carthage,  it 
has  crept  gradually  up  to  Greece,  Rome,  Spain,  France, 
till  the  sceptre  passed  to  England,  as  it  is  now  passing  to 
Russia.  The  reign  of  the  Normans  in  Sicily,  France, 
England,  and  Russia  itself,  attests  the  supremacy  of 
Northern  vigor. 

The  very  fruitfulness  of  nature  is  sometimes  hostile  to 
the  development  of  mankind.  "  Russia,"  in  the  words  of 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  "  while  it  is  ill-fitted  to  nourish  the  in- 
fancy of  civilization,  is  one  of  those  countries  which  is  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  receive  it  and  give  it  further  growth." 
"  The  Russian  soil  does  not  use  as  its  mere  instrument 
him  who  cultivates  it.  It  does  not  threaten  his  race  with 
degeneration.  It  makes  no  Creoles.  Man  meets  there 
only  two  obstructions — cold  and  space.  Cold,  more  easily 
overcome  than  extreme  heat  and  less  to  be  feared  by  our 
civilization  ;  space,  an  enemy  already  mastered  by  Russia 
and  its  great  ally  for  the  future." 

The  great  extent  of  its  territory,  the  sternness  of  its 
climate,  and  the  absence  of -large  centres  of  population, 
make  a  lasting  conquest  of  the  country  impossible.  Rus- 
sia can  be  invaded,  many  of  its  towns  destroyed,  and,  per- 
haps, even  its  capital  taken ;  but  the  patience  of  a  people 
who  are  willing  to  sacrifice  their  homes,  at  the  command 
of  their  emperor,  to  submit  and  to  suffer  as  long  as  it 
may  be  necessary,  and  who  alone  are  able  to  endure  the 


2O  Slav  or  Saxon. 

rigors  of  a  Russian  winter,  is  sufficient  to  secure  the 
ultimate  annihilation  of  any  army  which  attempts  the 
conquest  of  Russia.  There  is  too  much  of  it  to  over- 
run. Nature  combines  with  man  to  exterminate  the 
invader. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   RUSSIAN   PEOPLE. 

THE  present  population  of  the  Russian  empire  is  nearly 
one  hundred  millions.  That  of  the  British  empire,  em- 
bracing the  dense  masses  of  India,  is  about  three  hundred 
millions.  But  the  strength  of  a  nation  is  not  to  be  reck- 
oned by  mere  numbers.  The  population  of  the  Chinese 
empire  is  the  greatest  in  the  world,  yet  its  solid  and  life- 
less mass  cannot  resist  the  most  trifling  aggressions.  The 
Indian  empire  of  her  Majesty  is  composed  of  material  of 
much  the  same  sort.  The  soldiery  has  been  greatly  im- 
proved by  European  training,  but  it  is  still  far  behind  that 
of  Russia,  in  those  patient  and  enduring  qualities  which 
offer  the  only  assurance  of  success  in  a  long  and  desperate 
struggle. 

The  population  of  Russia  is  distributed  very  unevenly. 
In  the  North  and  the  South  it  is  extremely  sparse;  in 
the  centre  it  is  comparatively  dense.  This  comprises  the 
Southern  part  of  the  forest  zone,  the  black  land,  and 
Poland,  where  manufactures  and  other  branches  of  indus- 
try are  most  fully  developed.  The  centre  of  gravity  of 
population  is  near  Moscow,  a  little  to  the  South  of  the 
ancient  capital.  In  the  central  districts  it  is  nearly  as 

21 


22  Slav  or  Saxon. 

dense  as  in  continental  Europe,  and  it  grows  most  rapidly 
in  these  places. 

The  Russian  race  is  a  compound  of  many  elements, 
welded  and  fused  together,  sometimes  by  the  most  violent 
means.  This  process  is  still  going  on  among  the  frontier 
races,  especially  among  the  Asiatic  peoples.  These  are 
first  conquered  and  then  absorbed.  The  orginal  stock, 
the  Slav,  which  has  retained  the  predominance  in  this 
work  of  compounding  and  re-compounding,  belongs 
to  the  great  Aryan  family.  Its  kinship  to  the  races  of 
West  Europe  is  shown  by  its  language  as  well  as  by  its 
physical  and  intellectual  traits.  The  Slavs  are  most 
closely  connected  with  the  Germans  in  language,  but 
they  are  nearer  the  Greeks  and  Latins  in  character. 
They  are  mobile,  enthusiastic,  intelligent,  quick  to  per- 
ceive and  act  ;  they  lack  the  phlegmatic  temperament  of 
the  Teutonic  race.  They  are  the  latest  grown  of  the 
Aryan  children.  Even  to-day  they  are  not  sufficiently 
developed  to  reveal  fully  their  intellectual  aptitudes. 
Their  country  was  exposed  to  continual  Asiatic  incur- 
sions, in  past  times,  and  their  growth  and  civilization 
were  greatly  retarded.  It  is  only  in  our  generation  that 
they  have  begun  to  assume  any  intellectual  prominence  ; 
but  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  Russian  litera- 
ture of  the  present  time,  with  the  masterpieces  of 
Tolstoi  and  Turgeneff,  will  hardly  fail  to  foresee  a 
future  for  a  people  capable  of  producing  such  works. 
Among  the  branches  of  the  Aryan  stock,  those  later 
in  civilization  have  successively  asserted  their  superiority 
over  their  elder  brethren.  The  Greek  yielded  to  the 


The  Russian  People.  23 

Roman,  the  Roman  to  the  Teuton  and  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
and  it  is  not  beyond  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  even 
these  may  in  turn  give  way  to  the  Slav.  Up  to  the  pres- 
ent time  the  Slav  peoples  have  been  thought  to  lack 
originality.  They  have  been  learners  at  the  school  of 
more  enlightened  nations,  but  their  present  literature 
shows  that  they  are  by  no  means  wanting  in  higher 
qualities  of  intellect. 

The  parent  people  took  up  their  abode  in  Western 
Russia,  at  an  early  day,  while  other  branches  of  the 
same  stock  in  Poland,  Moravia,  Bulgaria,  Croatia,  Servia, 
Bohemia,  and  elsewhere,  became  the  ancestors  of  many  of 
the  various  peoples  now  subject  to  Austrian  and  German 
rule,  and  of  some  that  dwell  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula  in 
a  chaotic  and  unstable  condition  of  semi-independence. 
There  was  also,  at  an  early  period,  a  small  infusion  of 
Byzantine  blood,  together  with  a  large  infusion  of  Byzan- 
tine influence,  and  later,  some  admixture  with  Teutonic 
stock,  especially  in  the  Baltic  provinces  ;  also  an  amal- 
gamation with  the  Lithuanians,  an  ancient  Aryan  race, 
who  preserved  their  primitive  habits  and  their  pagan- 
ism to  a  late  period.  But  the  great  bulk  of  the  tribes 
and  races  which  the  Slavs  have  absorbed  were  of  Mongo- 
lian or  Turanian  origin.  Most  important  among  these 
during  the  early  process  of  amalgamation,  were  the  innu- 
merable Finnish  tribes.  Nestor,  the  oldest  historian  of 
Russia,  gives  us  such  a  multitude  of  names  of  strange 
peoples  which  have  disappeared  from  history,  that  it  con- 
fuses us.  Gradually  these  races  were  absorbed  ;  a  few 
remnants  are  all  that  tell  us  where  the  rest  have  gone. 


24  Slav  or  Saxon. 

Then  came  the  fusion  with  Turks  and  Tartars,  each 
change  strengthening  the  Slav  stock,  while  many  of  the 
Mongolian  characteristics  faded  away.  The  Slavs  of 
Great  Russia  (the  Eastern  portion  surrounding  Moscow) 
became  gradually  predominant  and  multiplied  most  rap- 
idly. It  was  they  who  acquired  (mostly  from  the  Finns, 
but  also  in  part  from  the  Tartars)  the  largest  share  of 
Mongolian  blood.  The  Slavs  of  White  Russia  in  the 
West,  and  Little  Russia  farther  South,  of  purer  ancestry, 
remained  subordinate  and  increased  more  slowly.  Rus- 
sian and  Pole  were  once  of  the  same  race.  Differences  in 
religion  and  habits  of  political  thought,  during  several 
centuries,  have  made  the  Poles  the  most  intractable 
among  the  subjects  of  the  Czar. 

The  work  of  fusion,  which  has  been  going  on  for  cen- 
turies, has  thus  developed  the  present  Great  Russian 
nationality,  which  now  comprises  a  majority  of  the  sub- 
jects of  the  Czar,  and  forms  the  ethnical  basis  of  the 
Russian  Empire.  This  process  of  race  change  and  amal- 
gamation is  still  going  on  at  points  farther  removed  from 
the  centre  of  the  empire.  Even  the  savages  of  Eastern 
Siberia  are  gradually  being  Russianized.  Russian  colo- 
nists go  everywhere,  mingle  with  the  original  peoples, 
and  soon  absorb  them.  There  are  to-day  some  eighty 
different  races  of  men  subject  to  the  Autocrat ;  races 
that  speak  every  possible  language  ;  races  that  come 
from  every  parent  stock  ;  races  of  every  religion — Bud- 
dhists, Lamaists,  Jews,  Protestants,  Greeks,  Catholics, 
Mohammedans,  and  pagans  of  many  varieties  ;  peoples 
that  follow  every  pursuit  in  life — savages  and  nomads, 


The  Russian  People.  25 

as  well  as  pastoral,  agricultural,  and  industrial  commun- 
ities. 

But,  in  the  language  of  Leroy-Beaulieu  : 

With  all  its  diverse  races,  Russia  is  by  no  means  an  inco- 
herent mass,  a  sort  of  political  conglomerate  or  marqueterie 
of  peoples.  It  resembles  rather  France  than  Turkey  or 
Austria  in  the  matter  of  national  unity.  If  Russia  can  be 
compared  to  a  mosaic,  it  is  one  of  those  ancient  pavements 
where  the  basis  is  of  a  single  substance  and  a  single  color, 
whose  surface  only  is  made  of  an  embroidery  of  different 
pieces  and  diverse  colors.  The  greater  part  of  the  population 
of  foreign  origin  is  thrown  out  on  the  extremities  of  Russia 
and  forms  around  her,  especially  toward  the  East  and  West,  a 
sort  of  girdle  of  greater  or  less  thickness.  All  the  centre  is 
filled  by  a  nationality,  at  once  absorbing  and  expansive,  in  the 
midst  of  which  are  hidden  some  small  German  colonies  and 
weak  Finnish  or  Tartar  communities,  without  coherence  or 
national  bond.  In  the  interior  of  Russia,  in  place  of  unlike- 
nesses,  varieties,  and  contrasts,  that  which  strikes  the  traveller 
is  the  uniformity  of  population  and  the  monotony  of  life. 

The  language  has  few  dialects,  the  towns  are  of  the 
same  form,  the  peasants  the  same  in  habits  and  mode  of 
life.  "  The  nation  is  made  in  the  image  of  nature ;  it 
shows  the  same  unity,  almost  the  same  monotony,  as  the 
plains  which  it  inhabits." 

The  tendency  to  colonize  and  incorporate  other  races 
is  aided  by  a  remarkable  physical  peculiarity  of  Russia. 
Throughout  the  whole  of  its  great  central  plain,  stone  is 
almost  entirely  absent  ;  the  buildings  are  generally  of 
wood.  Dwellings  of  this  kind  do  not  last.  It  used  to 


26  Slav  or  Saxon. 

be  said  that  the  towns  of  Russia  were  burned  once  every 
seven  years.  This  lack  of  permanence,  together  with  the 
vast  supply  of  land  and  the  absence  of  natural  barriers, 
made  the  people  half  nomadic.  Formerly,  great  bodies 
of  peasants  would  leave  their  farms  and  start  together  in 
search  of  better  lands.  This  tendency  to  move  on  still 
remains  a  trait  of  the  Russian  people.  It  is  the  parent 
spirit  of  that  enterprise  which  is  to-day  civilizing  the 
forests  of  Siberia  and  the  plains  of  Turkestan.  Russia 
belongs  to  one  of  those  races  which  has  been  driven  to 
continual  motion  by  an  impulse  from  within,  one  of  those 
races  whose  calling  is  emigration  and  conquest.  Rambaud, 
in  his  history  of  Russia,  describes  the  process  very  forci- 
bly. H  e  says : 

We  must  recognize  that  the  Russian,  almost  as  much  as  the 
Anglo-Saxon,  has  the  instinct  which  drives  men  to  emigrate 
and  found  colonies.  The  Russians  do,  in  the  far  East  of 
Europe,  what  the  Anglo-Saxons  do  in  the  far  West  of  America. 
They  belong  to  one  of  the  great  races  of  pioneers  and  back- 
woodsmen. All  the  history  of  the  Russian  people,  from  the 
foundation  of  Moscow,  is  that  of  their  advance  into  the  forest, 
into  the  black  land,  into  the  prairie.  The  Russian  has  his 
trappers  and  settlers  in  the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper,  the  Don, 
and  the  Terek  ;  in  the  tireless  fur-hunters  of  Siberia  ;  in  the 
gold-diggers  of  the  Ural  and  the  Altai  ;  in  the  adventurous 
monks  who  lead  the  way,  founding  in  regions  ever  more 
distant,  a  monastery  which  is  to  be  the  centre  of  a  town  ; 
lastly,  in  the  Raskolniki,  or  Dissenters,  Russian  Puritans  or 
Mormons,  who  are  persecuted  by  laws  human  and  divrine,  and 
seek  from  forest  to  forest  the  Jerusalem  of  their  dreams. 


The  Russian  People.  27 

The  level  plains  of  Russia  naturally  tempted  men  to  migra- 
tion. The  mountain  keeps  her  own,  the  mountain  calls  her 
wanderers  to  return  ;  while  the  steppe,  stretching  away  to  the 
dimmest  horizon,  invites  you  to  advance,  to  ride  at  a  venture, 
to  "  go  where  the  eyes  glance."  The  flat  and  monotonous 
soil  has  no  hold  on  its  inhabitants  ;  they  will  find  as  bare  a 
landscape  anywhere.  As  for  their  hovel,  how  can  they  care 
for  that,  it  is  burned  down  so  often  ?  The  Western  expression, 
"  the  ancestral  roof,"  has  no  meaning  for  the  Russian  peasant. 
The  native  of  Great  Russia,  accustomed  to  live  on  little,  and 
endure  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  was  born  to  brave  the 
dangers  and  privations  of  the  emigrant's  life.  With  his  crucifix, 
his  ax  in  his  belt,  and  his  boots  slung  behind  his  back,  he  will 
go  to  the  end  of  the  Eastern  world.  However  weak  may  be 
the  infusion  of  the  Russian  element  in  an  Asiatic  population, 
it  cannot  transmute  itself  or  disappear  ;  it  must  become  the 
dominant  power.  History  has  helped  to  make  this  movement 
irresistible.  When  the  Russian  took  refuge  in  Suzdal,  he  was 
compelled  to  clear  and  cultivate  the  very  worst  land  of  his 
future  domain,  for  the  black  land  was  then  overrun  by  nomads. 
How  could  he  escape  the  temptation  to  go  back  and  look  in 
the  South  for  more  fertile  soil,  which,  with  less  labor,  would 
yield  four  times  as  great  a  harvest  ?  Villages  and  whole  can- 
tons in  Muscovy  have  been  known  to  empty  themselves  in  a 
moment,  the  peasants  marching  in  a  body,  as  in  the  old  times 
of  the  invasions,  toward  the  "  black  soil,"  the  "  warm  soil,"  of 
the  South.  Government  and  the  landholders  were  compelled 
to  use  the  most  horrible  means  to  stop  these  migrations  of  the 
husbandmen. 

Without  these  repressive  measures,  the  steppes  would  have 
been  colonized  two  centuries  earlier  than  they  were.  The 
report  that  the  Czar  authorized  emigration,  a  forged  ukase,  a 


28  Slav  or  Saxon. 

rumor,  any  thing  was  enough  to  uproot  whole  peoples  from 
the  soil.  The  peasant's  passion  for  wandering  explains  the 
development  of  Cossack  life  in  the  plains  of  the  South  ;  it  ex- 
plains the  legislation  which,  from  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  chained  the  serf  to  the  glebe  and  bound  him  to  the 
soil.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  on  the  other  hand,  the  peasant 
was  free.  His  prince  encouraged  him  to  emigrate,  and  hence 
came  the  colonization  of  Eastern  Russia.  The  Russian  race 
has  the  faculty  of  absorbing  certain  aboriginal  stocks.  The 
Little  Russians  assimilated  the  remnants  of  the  Turkish 
tribes  ;  the  Great  Russians  swallowed  up  the  Finnish  nations 
of  the  East. 

The  qualities  of  the  Russian  peasant  fit  him  admirably 
for  this  great  work  of  the  absorption  of  other  races,  espe- 
cially races  whose  civilization  is  of  a  lower  type  than  his 
own.  "  He  is  good-natured,  long-suffering,  conciliatory, 
capable  of  bearing  extreme  hardships,  and  endowed  with 
a  marvellous  power  of  adapting  himself  to  circumstances." 
Arrogance  and  the  assumption  of  personal  or  national 
superiority  are  wholly  foreign  to  him.  He  occupies 
a  few  acres,  tills  his  land  in  peace,  mingles  with  the 
natives  in  the  friendliest  way,  and  the  two  races  soon 
blend  together  and  become  one  community,  and  finally 
one  people. 

Vambery  says: 

There  has  been  no  standstill  in  the  Russian  State  from  its 
infancy  to  this  day.  We  have  seen  that  while  processes  of 
crystallization  were  going  on  in  one  part  of  the  gigantic  Em- 
pire, there  were  already  springing  up  new  formations  in  other 


The  Russian  People.  29 

parts  of  it,  caused  by  the  accession  of  new  and  fresh  elements. 
The  influence  of  ancient  Rome  in  revolutionizing  the  ethnical 
relations  of  Europe  can  alone  be  compared  in  a  certain  degree 
with  the  Russianizing  influence  of  the  Russian  State  on  Europe, 
with  this  difference,  however,  that  the  results  attending  the 
process  of  transformation  under  Russian  agencies,  whilst  they 
are  not  more  rapid  in  developing  than  in  the  case  of  Rome, 
are  far  more  intense  in  their  effect.  We  have  no  authentic 
statistics  at  our  disposal  concerning  the  progress  of  popula- 
tion in  Russia  during  the  last  century,  but  if  we  consider 
that  there  were,  at  the  most,  thirty  millions  of  Russians  at 
the  beginning  of  this  century,  and  that  their  number  has 
risen  within  recent  times  up  to  eighty  millions,  it  will  not  be 
difficult  to  guess  where  the  Voguls,  Ostyaks,  Tchermisses,  and 
other  nations  about  whose  large  numbers  travellers  of  the  last 
century  have  given  us  information,  have  got  to.  We  neither 
wish  to,  nor  can  we,  here  speak  of  all  the  particulars  of  the 
process  of  amalgamation  ;  the  process  remains  forever  the 
old  one. 

First  appear  on  the  stage  the  merchant  and  the  Cossack  ; 
they  are  followed  by  the  Popa,  with  his  superstition  and  wor- 
ship of  images,  and  the  rear  is  brought  up  by  the  Vodki  and 
the  Tchinovniks  with  their  train  of  Russian  peculiarities, 
and  they  all  manage  very  soon,  with  due  regard  to  local 
circumstances,  to  insinuate  themselves  into  the  good  graces 
of  the  natives,  an  achievement  which  seldom  meets  with  any 
resistance,  owing  to  the  prevailing  Asiatic  characteristics  of 
Russian  society.  In  due  course  of  time,  the  natives,  continu- 
ally imposed  upon  in  their  dealings  with  the  crafty  Russian 
merchant,'  fall  victims  of  pauperism  ;  the  holy-water  sprinkle 
and  the  brandy  flask  inaugurate  the  process  of  denationaliza- 
tion, a  process  which  is  hastened  by  the  cleverly  inserted 


30  Slav  or  Saxon. 

wedges  of  Cossack  colonies,  and  half  a  century  of  Russian 
reign  has  proved  sufficient  to  turn  Ural- Altaians  of  the  purest 
Asiatic  stock  into  Aryan  Russians.  The  physical  character- 
istics alone  survive  for  a  while,  like  ruins  of  the  former 
ethnical  structure  ;  but  even  these  last  mementos  become  ob- 
literated by  the  crossing  of  races  which  results  from  inter- 
marriage, and  we  meet  to-day  genuine  Russians  in  countries 
where  in  the  last  century  no  traces  of  them  could  have  been 
found. 

Wallace  thus  describes  the  changes  still  going  on  : 

During  my  wanderings  in  the  Northern  provinces,  I  have 
found  villages  in  every  stage  of  Russification.  In  one,  every 
thing  seemed  thoroughly  Finnish  :  the  inhabitants  had  a 
reddish-olive  skin,  very  high  cheek-bones,  obliquely  set  eyes, 
and  a  peculiar  costume  ;  none  of  the  women  and  very  few  of 
the  men  could  understand  Russian,  and  any  Russian  who 
visited  the  place  was  regarded  as  a  foreigner.  In  a  second, 
there  were  already  some  Russian  inhabitants  ;  the  others  had 
lost  something  of  their  pure  Finnish  type,  many  of  the  men 
had  discarded  the  old  costume  and  spoke  Russian  fluently, 
and  a  Russian  visitor  was  no  longer  shunned.  In  a  third,  the 
Finnish  type  was  still  further  weakened  ;  all  the  men  spoke 
Russian  and  nearly  all  the  women  understood  it ;  the  old  male 
costume  had  entirely  disappeared,  and  the  old  female  costume 
was  rapidly  following  it  ;  and  intermarriage  with  the  Russian 
population  was  no  longer  rare.  In  a  fourth,  intermarriage  had 
almost  completely  done  its  work,  and  the  old  Finnish  element 
could  be  detected  merely  in  certain  peculiarities  of  physiog- 
nomy and  accent. 

And  Wallace,  as  well  as  Leroy-Beaulieu,  remarks  the 


The  Russian  People.  3 1 

greater  persistence  of  former  race  characteristics  among 
the  women  than  among  the  men. 

From  the  continuation  of  this  work  of  consolidation  up 
to  the  present  time,  as  well  as  from  Russian  history,  it  is 
evident  that  the  Russian  people  is  in  a  state  of  formation 
both  moral  and  material.  Its  power  is  less  to-day  than  its 
size  or  population.  Its  weakness  in  the  Crimean  and  Bui- 1 
garian  wars  is  an  evidence  of  this.  But  this  is  the  weak- 
ness of  infancy  and  not  of  old  age,  and  will  disappear  with 
the  firmer  fibre  of  a  larger  growth. 

Most  of  the  capitals  of  the  governments  in  the  South 
and  East  are  younger  than  the  capitals  of  the  Atlantic 
States  of  North  America.  The  great  metropolis  of  Odessa 
is  less  than  a  century  old.  These  new  districts  of  Russia 
have  increased  tenfold  in  less  than  one  hundred  years. 
This  is  caused  by  colonization  and  the  process  of  fusion 
with  the  native  races  which  accompanies  it.  This  process 
of  fusion  becomes  more  and  more  rapid  as  facilities  for 
communication  increase. 

Sociology  has  shown  that  compound  races,  where  the 
elements  composing  them  are  not  too  incongruous  for 
admixture,  are  the  best  races.  Indeed,  the  Anglo-Saxons 
have  furnished  proof  of  this  as  well  as  the  French  and  the 
Italians.  The  union  in  these  cases  was  accomplished 
centuries  ago.  The  union  of  the  Gauls  and  Franks,  as 
well  as  that  of  the  Lombards  and  the  Latins  took  place 
before  the  Norman-Saxon  fusion,  and  the  vigor  of  these 
peoples  has  not  lasted  like  that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon. 
But  this  same  process  is  going  on  in  Russia  to-day  just  as 
it  is  in  America,  where  large  immigration  and  the  admix- 


32  Slav  or  Saxon. 

ture  of  Celtic  and  German  blood  is  improving  the  Ameri- 
can stock.  The  Russians  seem  to  have  the  faculty  of 
absorbing  greater  varieties  of  the  human  species  than  the 
Saxons.  No  difference  of  race,  language,  or  color  seems 
to  stand  in  their  way.  The  very  names  of  the  aborigines 
become  changed  as  soon  as  the  heel  of  Russian  conquest 
has  trodden  over  their  land.  Lieutenant  Alikhanoff,  the 
adventurer  who  planned  the  capture  of  Merv,  was  the 
Asiatic  Mussulman,  Ali  Khan.  When  he  became  a  Rus- 
sian, the  addition  of  a  suffix  gave  him  a  new  name.  The 
identity  of  the  conquered  race  is  lost  in  this  great  process 
of  amalgamation.  There  is  not  an  office  in  the  Russian 
State,  to  which  the  most  savage  of  its  subjects  is  not 
as  eligible  as  the  native  of  St.  Petersburg.  General 
Melikoff,  whose  power  was  second  to  that  of  the  Czar 
alone,  was  not  a  Russian,  but  a  Georgian.  In  most  places 
no  difference  is  recognized  in  law,  custom,  or  education. 
The  Russian  is  the  only  language  taught  in  the  schools, 
official  business  is  transacted  in  no  other  tongue.  The 
natives  who  acquire  it  rise  rapidly  in  the  service.  In  Po- 
land this  transmutation  has  been  brought  about  under 
circumstances  of  great  cruelty.  The  Poles  loved  dearly 
their  language,  their  church,  their  ancient  institutions. 
Their  civilization  was  at  least  equal  to  that  of  Russia. 
The  forcible  up-rooting  of  all  that  was  dear  to  them  has 
been  a  source  of  great  sorrow  and  suffering. 

Similar  changes  are  accomplished  by  force  elsewhere. 
Colonies  of  Russians  are  sent  into  new  districts  by  Im- 
perial command.  Great  numbers  of  men  are  exiled  for 
various  offences  from  different  portions  of  Russia,  and 


The  Russian  People.  33 

compelled  to  live  in  other  parts  of  the  empire,  thus  keep- 
ing the  whole  of  Russian  society  in  a  state  of  motion, 
and  preventing  in  great  degree  the  fossilization  which 
so  commonly  follows  upon  the  footsteps  of  autocratic 
rule.  The  Russian  people  are  patient  and  submit  to 
these  changes  without  a  murmur.  When  criminals  are 
exiled  to  Siberia,  their  families  accompany  them,  and  these 
convict  settlements  form  nuclei  for  the  growth  of  infant 
colonies.  This  process  of  colonization  by  force  aids  ma- 
terially the  vast  currents  of  voluntary  colonization  pro- 
duced by  the  adventurous  spirit  of  the  Russians  themselves. 
Even  the  Church,  a  conservative  force  elsewhere,  encour- 
ages this  growth,  and  the  great  monasteries  of  the  Black 
Clergy  have  often  been  the  outposts  of  Russian  civilization. 
Add  to  this  the  fact  that  all  emigration  from  Russia  is 
prohibited,  that  Russia  does  not  recognize  the  right  of 
any  of  her  subjects  to  change  his  allegiance  or'nationality, 
that  the  Russian  can  never  leave  his  province,  his  country, 
nor  his  town,  without  the  permission  of  his  government, 
which  is  refused  if  he  intends  permanent  expatriation,  and 
we  have  a  system  which  insures  for  a  long  time  the  con- 
stant growth  of  the  Russian  people.  Statistics  are  acces- 
sible for  only  a  short  time  back,  but  from  them  we  learn 
that  the  population  of  Russia  doubles  in  somewhat  less 
than  sixty  years.  This  is  slower  than  the  growth  of 
the  United  States,  which  is  aided  by  a  large  influx  of 
foreign  immigrants.  There  is  comparatively  little  immi- 
gration into  Russia ;  the  growth  is  internal.  When  in- 
dustrial conditions  change,  emigration  to  America  will 
cease.  But  in  Russia  we  have  the  assurance  of  a  constant 


34  Slav  or  Saxon. 

increase  in  population.  One  peculiar  feature  in  Russian 
social  life  tends  to  secure  the  rapid  growth  of  the  people 
by  natural  multiplication.  The  individual  ownership  of 
property  in  all  other  civilized  states  brings  with  it  some 
restriction  to  the  growth  of  population.  The  larger  the 
family  the  less  must  be  the  share  of  each  child  in  the 
patrimony.  But  in  Russia,  where  the  inhabitants  of  each 
village  own  its  land  in  common,  the  share  of  each  family 
is  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  male  members;  or  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  the  heads  of  households. 
The  greater  the  number  of  male  children  the  larger  will 
be  the  share  of  the  family  in  the  communal  land,  either 
when  the  child  is  born  or  when  he  becomes  the  head  of  a 
new  household.  The  growth  of  population  is  thus  en- 
couraged, and  it  is  natural  that  it  should  be  much  more 
rapid  in  Russia  than  in  the  countries  of  the  West.  The 
great  drawback  up  to  the  present  time  has  been  on  ac- 
count of  unfavorable  conditions  of  climate  and  hygiene. 
Russian  families  are  very  large,  but  the  mortality  is  very 
great.  The  great  mass  of  the  people  have  hitherto 
known  nothing  of  medicine,  surgery,  or  the  laws  of 
health.  The  natural  increase  in  population  has  been 
much  checked  on  this  account.  The  wretched  food, 
the  long  fasts  prescribed  by  the  church,  drunkenness, 
insufficient  ventilation  in  winter,  the  filthy  habits  of 
the  peasantry,  the  contagious  diseases  common  in  the 
villages, — all  these  things  make  the  death-rate  very  high. 
Most  of  these  difficulties,  however,  can  be  avoided  by 
greater  knowledge  and  care,  and  there  has  been  a  de- 
cided improvement  of  late  years.  With  proper  precau- 


TJie  Russian  People.  35 

tions,  the  severity  of  the  climate  is  no  great  drawback,  as 
the  high  average  duration  of  human  life  in  Scandinavia 
abundantly  proves.  If  the  present  communal  system 
lasts,  the  birth-rate  will  continue  to  be  great,  while  a  bet- 
ter knowledge  of  the  laws  of  health  will  materially  lessen 
the  mortality. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   MILITARY   AUTOCRACY. 

IT  is  not  only  the  vast  area  and  constantly  increasing 
population  of  Russia  which  qualifies  her  for  that  career 
of  universal  dominion  to  which  she  aspires,  but  also  the 
character  of  her  political  institutions,  now  unique  among 
the  great  powers  of  the  world.  It  is  the  complete  and 
absolute  unity  which  her  autocracy  gives,  it  is  the  strength 
of  her  military  institutions  which  threatens  civilization. 
A  peculiar  fitness  for  this  form  of  government  seems 
now  to  be  ingrained  in  the  Russian  people,  not  indeed 
by  nature,  for  the  Slav  races  were  originally  free,  but 
by  the  force  of  long-continued  custom.  Among  the 
great  mass  of  the  Russian  people  (kept  ignorant  indeed 
by  this  same  despotism),  an  autocratic  government  is  the 
highest  ideal,  and  the  Holy  Father,  the  Czar,  is  looked 
upon  with  the  deepest  reverence.  When,  upon  the  acces- 
sion of  Anna  Ivanovna,  after  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great, 
it  was  proposed  to  limit  her  authority,  the  mass  of  her 
subjects  expressed  the  strongest  dissatisfaction,  and  de- 
manded that  she  should  be  the  absolute  ruler.  Autoc- 
racy has  had  a  very  useful  servant  in  the  Russian 
Church.  The  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  has  been  some- 

36 


The  Military  Autocracy.  37 

times  a  source  of  strength,  but  at  others  a  source  of 
weakness  to  monarchy.  The  concentration  of  the  religious 
thought  of  a  people  upon  a  foreign  object,  has  often  di- 
minished their  loyalty  to  their  own  sovereign.  The  Russian 
Church  is  a  purely  national  institution,  and  is  wholly  sub- 
servient to  the  temporal  power  of  the  Czar.  It  was  one 
of  the  most  formidable  instruments  in  the  making  of  the 
despotism.  Every  dignitary  in  it,  from  the  patriarch  to 
the  curate,  held  his  place  in  absolute  dependence  upon  the 
will  of  the  Prince.  The  notions  of  autocracy  came  into 
Russia  from  Byzantium,  with  the  Church.  Absolute  and 
unquestioned  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  Czar  is  part  of 
the  religion  of  every  Russian,  indeed  the  chief  part.  It 
is  impressed  upon  him  as  his  highest  duty  by  a  clergy 
who  are  the  facile  instruments  of  the  Czar  for  that  pur- 
pose. Rebellion  is  something  beyond  ordinary  heresy 
and  sacrilege.  The  thoughts  of  the  people  are  bound  in 
spiritual  chains,  quite  as  effectually  as  their  bodies  are 
subject  to  physical  power.  There  is  as  little  liberty  of 
thought  as  of  action  ;  the  dread  of  spiritual  punishment  is, 
perhaps,  more  effective  than  the  fear  of  Siberia  or  the 
fortresses. 

In  Russia  only  has  autocracy  been  able  to  withstand 
the  influences  of  modern  civilization.  Nicholas  was 
perhaps  more  an  autocrat  than  any  of  his  predecessors. 
He  regarded  not  only  the  earth,  but  the  very  skies  of 
Russia  as  his  possessions.  Not  even  in  thought  would  he 
permit  his  authority  to  be  questioned.  Whatever  it  may 
do  in  the  future,  the  revolutionary  spirit  in  Russia  has 
as  yet  touched  only  the  upper  layers  of  society  ;  it  is 


38  Slav  or  Saxon. 

found  mostly  among  the  small  class  of  the  well  educated. 
It  destroyed  a  czar,  it  may  overthrow  a  dynasty,  but  it 
must  have  a  much  greater  growth  than  it  has  yet  attained 
to  up-root  from  Russia  the  despotic  principle  which  has 
been  so  long  ingrained  in  the  fibre  of  its  political  organ- 
ism. The  Anglo-Saxon  form  of  government  is  still  a 
long  way  off  from  the  Russian  people.  Whatever  consti- 
tution may  in  the  future  be  given  to  Russia,  it  is  certain 
that  it  will  at  first  tend  more  than  the  organic  law  of 
other  states  to  the  centralization  of  political  power.  In- 
dividual life  will  still  be  largely  regulated  by  government 
agencies.  It  would  take  some  time  (even  if  the  govern- 
ment were  so  disposed)  to  lift  a  hundred  million  people 
out  of  the  ignorance  and  habits  of  unquestioned  obedi- 
ence to  which  the  despotism  has  accustomed  them. 

The  absence  of  great  centres  of  population  has  also  fa- 
vored the  growth  and  maintenance  of  the  despotic  princi- 
ples ;  there  is  no  point  where  the  forces  of  resistance  can 
combine.  Only  seventeen  of  all  the  Russian  cities  have  a 
population  of  over  fifty  thousand.  Not  more  than  one 
tenth  of  the  people  dwell  in  cities.  Russia  is  a  strange 
example  of  the  survival,  in  our  own  age,  of  a  type  of 
civilized  society  almost  wholly  militant ;  a  nation  ruled 
as  if  it  were  an  army.  Except  in  the  tiny  village  commu- 
nities, local  self-government  is  confined  to  the  most 
trifling  matters  ;  a  few  bureaus  at  the  capital  direct 
every  thing.  The  growth  of  the  Russian  people  is  by 
militant  methods,  totally  different  from  the  industrial 
methods  of  English  development.  The  political  integra- 
tion of  Russia  contrasts  in  a  manner  most  menacing  with 


Tke  Military  Autocracy.  39 

the  process  of  disintegration  which  is  going  on  every- 
where in  the  British  Empire.  In  spite  of  the  immense 
industrial  growth  of  England  and  her  colonies,  the  politi- 
cal bonds  between  them  are  becoming  weaker.  The 
distant  colonies,  such  as  Canada,  Australia,  and  South 
Africa,  inhabited  by  Anglo-Saxon  peoples,  are  almost 
wholly  independent.  A  certain  moral  support  is  about  all 
that  the  mother  country  can  count  upon.  They  are 
little  better  than  friendly  nations,  the  ties  have  been  vol- 
untarily relaxed  in  favor  of  local  self-government  and  in 
the  interest  of  individual  liberty.  The  agitation  for 
home  rule  in  Ireland  leads  us  to  think  that  a  similar 
policy  will  be  pursued  at  no  distant  time  with  respect 
to  that  island.  A  great  blessing  is  conferred  upon 
humanity  by  this  policy  if  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  is  to 
remain  predominant. 

A  recent  work  by  H.  Y.  S.  Gotten,  of  the  Bengal  Civil 
Service,  "  New  India,  or  India  in  Transition,"  demon- 
strates that  the  present  mode  of  governing  that  empire 
cannot  last ;  that  the  British  administration  does  not 
respond  to  the  currents  of  native  thought  and  feeling, 
that  even  the  English  ideas,  absorbed  by  the  peoples  of 
Hindostan,  have  made  them  less  satisfied  with  a  foreign 
yoke,  which  is  itself  inconsistent  with  those  ideas  ;  that 
the  English  and  the  natives  do  not  understand  each 
other,  and  there  is  a  strong  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
latter  to  govern  themselves  in  their  own  way.  The  Eng- 
lish claim  to  have  been  educating  them  for  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  self-government,  and  the  tendency  will 
be  toward  the  granting  of  this  at  no  very  distant  day. 


4O  Slav  or  Saxon. 

Mr.  Gotten  insists  that  the  future  of  India  will  be  a  fede- 
ration of  independent  powers,  cemented  together  by  the 
power  of  England. 

But  this  policy,  both  in  India  and  elsewhere,  so  salutary 
in  other  respects,  may  render  England  all  the  more  unable, 
in  a  military  point  of  view,  to  cope  with  her  great  antag- 
onist, whose  social  forces  are  moving  in  an  opposite  di- 
rection. In  the  great  struggle  to  come,  England  will  be 
aided  by  the  self-interest  and  the  affection  of  a  large 
number  of  dependent  industrial  peoples,  averse  to  war, 
from  whom. she  can  compel  nothing  against  their  will.  She 
will  be  confronted  with  an  antagonist  whose  nation  is  an 
army,  whose  citizens  are  accustomed  by  habit  and  inherit- 
ance of  thought  to  obey  the  slightest  wish  of  the  central 
authority  which  can  direct  the  energies  of  every  man  in 
the  Russian  dominions  toward  the  accomplishment  of  a 
single  object. 

The  Russian  army  is  to-day  the  largest  in  the  world. 
In  time  of  war  it  can  be  augmented  to  more  than  two 
millions  of  men.  At  the  present  moment  the  Russian 
soldiers  may  not  be  equal  to  their  English  rivals ;  but 
they  possess  great  staying  qualities.  Ever  since  the  time 
of  Peter  the  Great  they  have  learned  how  to  conquer 
through  defeat. 

The  Russian  soldier  is  thus  described  by  M.  Cucheval 
Clarigny : 

Docile,  as  well  as  brave,  easily  contented,  supporting  with- 
out complaint  all  fatigues  and  privations,  and  ready  for  every 
thing  ;  the  Russian  soldier  constructs  roads,  clears  canals,  and 
re-establishes  the  ancient  aqueducts.  He  makes  the  bricks 


The  Military  Autocracy.  41 

with  which  he  builds  the  forts  and  the  barracks  which  he  in- 
habits ;  he  fabricates  his  own  cartridges  and  projectiles  ;  he  is 
a  mason,  a  metal-founder,  or  a  carpenter,  according  to  the 
need  of  the  hour,  and  the  day  after  he  is  dismissed  he  con- 
tentedly follows  the  plow. 

With  such  instruments  at  its  disposal  the  Russian  power  will 
never  give  way.  A  few  years  will  suffice  to  render  final  the 
conquest  of  any  land  on  which  it  has  set  its  foot. 

Another  great  advantage  of  autocracy  over  English  lib- 
eralism in  war  is  this:  A  policy  dependent  upon  the  will 
of  one  man  only  is  pretty  sure  to  be  persisted  in.  It 
must  be  a  very  weak  czar  who  will  waver  from  month  to 
month,  or  from  year  to  year  in  his  purposes,  while  the 
English  government,  depending  for  its  existence  upon  the 
majority  of  the  House  of  Commons,  is  subject  not  only 
to  a  change  in  the  policy  of  the  ministry,  but  to  sudden 
changes  in  the  ministry  itself.  The  British  constitution 
is  defective  in  giving  effect  too  quickly  to  sudden  revolu- 
tions in  popular  thought.  While  a  government  ought  to 
embody  the  thought  of  the  people,  it  should  be  its  per- 
manent conviction,  and  not  its  mere  temporary  impulse. 
A  ministry  coming  in  on  some  fresh  tide  of  popular 
passion  may  completely  overthrow  the  plans  of  its  prede- 
cessors. In  war,  such  a  system  is  almost  as  bad  as  the  old 
Roman  plan  of  dividing  the  leadership  of  an  army  be- 
tween two  generals,  and  providing  that  each  should  be  in 
command  a  single  day.  In  constancy  of  purpose  do  we 
find  the  key  to  success. 

It  looks  now  as  if  the  conflict  between  England  and 
Russia  would  begin  either  in  the  Balkan  peninsula,  or  in 


42  Slat'  or  Saxon. 

Central  Asia.  Though  postponed  for  the  present,  this 
preliminary  struggle  cannot  be  far  off.  Should  it  last 
long,  and  involve  great  sacrifices,  the  English  people 
might  think  it  better  to  give  up  their  Asiatic  posses- 
sions than  to  continue  to  defend  them  at  too  great  a  cost. 
The  cry  of  "  Perish  India  "  is  sometimes  heard,  and  in 
the  presence  of  the  great  social  struggles  which  are  loom- 
ing up  before  the  English  people,  the  land  question,  the 
Irish  question,  the  labor  question,  the  desire  of  England 
to  retain  its  foreign  possessions  is  likely  to  grow  less  and 
less.  The  sceptre  is  passing  from  the  land-owning  and 
cultivated  classes  of  England  to  those  who  have  a  hard 
struggle  to  earn  their  daily  bread,  who  have  no  time  to 
care  for  prestige  and  political  power,  who  will  not  sacri- 
fice their  own  interests  for  objects  as  distant  as  Afghanis- 
tan or  India.  Let  India  fall,  and  Russia  is  assured  the 
domination  of  the  continent. 


CHAPTER  V. 

RUSSIAN   CONQUESTS   AND   AGGRESSIONS. 

WHEN  we  consider  the  probable  growth  of  the  Russian 
Empire  in  the  future  by  the  light  of  what  it  has  al- 
ready done,  we  find  enough  to  appall  the  imagination. 
When  the  Russian  people  first  appear  in  history,  they 
occupy  a  territory  considerably  less  than  one  fifth  of  their 
present  European  possessions  alone.  The  former  capital 
of  Russia,  Moscow,  was  built  upon  lands  conquered  from 
Asiatic  races-;  the  present  capital,  St.  Petersburg,  upon 
lands  wrested  from  the  Swedes  as  late  as  the  time  of  Peter 
the  Great.  The  little  plateau  of  Valdai,  in  the  Northwest 
of  Russia,  is  the  source  of  three  great  river  systems,  the 
Ilmen,  connecting  it  with  the  great  lakes  and  rivers  in  the 
North  country,  the  Dnieper,  flowing  South  into  the  Black 
Sea,  and  the  Volga  flowing  Southeast  into  the  Caspian. 
This  was  the  cradle  of  the  Russian  people.  The  early 
capitals,  Kief  and  Novgorod,  were  upon  the  Dnieper  and 
the  Ilmen  respectively.  Along  these  channels  spread  the 
ancient  civilization  of  Russia.  From  Novgorod  to  the 
Northeast,  finally  reaching  the  shores  of  the  White  Sea 
and  the  Arctic  Ocean.  From  Kief  to  the  Southwest, 
menacing  even  the  power  of  Byzantium  ;and  later,  after  the 

43 


44  Slav  or  Saxon. 

temporary  overthrow  of  Kief,  Russia  went  East  to  Mos- 
cow, and  on  to  the  Urals,  and  Southeast  along  the  Volga 
to  the  Caspian,  and  across  the  Urals  to  Siberia.  Then 
began  the  struggle  with  Sweden  for  the  provinces  upon  the 
Baltic.  Then  the  Cossacks  of  South  Russia  were  subdued; 
and  vast  tracts  of  land  were  wrested  from  the  Turks. 
Then  came  the  struggle  with  Poland,  resulting  in  the  three 
partitions  of  that  unhappy  kingdom.  Then  followed  the 
seizure  of  the  whole  of  Finland,  formerly  a  part  of  the 
Swedish  monarchy.  Then  the  Caucasus  fell,  and  new  ac- 
quisitions were  made  from  Persia  and  Turkey.  Then  the 
country  of  the  Amoor  was  wrested  from  China  and  Sagha- 
lien  won  by  shrewd  diplomacy  from  Japan ;  and  lastly  the 
network  of  Russian  conquest  enveloped  the  plains  of 
Turkestan.  From  this  point  it  is  spreading  to  Afghan- 
istan, Mongolia,  and  Thibet.  It  is  not  very  long  since  we 
read  in  the  morning  papers  the  following  dispatch. 

ST.  PETERSBURG,  Feb.  16,  1886.  Colonel  Prejewalsky,  the 
explorer  of  Mongolia,  is  home  again,  and  is  being  lionized  with 
as  little  mercy  as,  according  to  his  own  account,  he  showed  the 
wretched  Asiatics.  He  started  for  the  wilds  of  Thibet  just 
two  years  ago,  with  about  40,000  rubles,  seventeen  Russian 
soldiers,  a  swarm  of  servants,  and  a  large  assortment  of  breech- 
loading  rifles.  The  object  of  his  expedition  was,  of  course, 
purely  scientific,  though  incidentally  he  did  a  little  political 
interviewing.  The  news  of  the  expedition  reached  the  Em- 
peror of  China  at  Pekin,  whose  permission  to  travel  in  Mon- 
golia the  gallant  Colonel  had  omitted  to  ask.  Some  trouble 
resulted,  and  the  explorers  literally  had  to  fight  their  way 
through  the  natives  in  many  districts.  Colonel  Prejewalsky 


Russian  Conquests  and  Aggressions.  45 

modestly  owns  that  they  shot  about  400,  but  the  Mongols  bore 
their  visitors  no  malice. 

A  portrait  of  the  Czar  acted  like  a  charm.  When  it  was 
shown  them  they  went  into  raptures.  The  conviction  grows 
in  Thibet  that  the  "  Divine  figure  of  the  North  will  soon  ex- 
tend his  protection  to  the  expectant  Mongols  who  are  sick  of 
Mandarin  tyranny." 

No  geographical  nor  ethnographical  limits  have  been 
broad  enough  to  confine  Russian  ambition.  Her  boundaries 
are  changing  from  year  to  year;  no  man  can  foresee  the 
end.  Let  the  conquered  peoples  speak  what  language 
they  will,  let  their  skin  be  of  whatever  color,  let  their  re- 
ligion be  what  it  may,  Catholic  as  in  Poland,  Protestant 
as  in  Finland,  Pagan  as  in  Siberia,  Moslem  as  in  Turke- 
stan, it  is  all  one  ;  they  soon  become  parts  of  the  great 
Russian  race.  Who  can  draw  the  limits  of  this  power  of 
expansion  ?  We  have  evidence  enough  that  Russian  am- 
bition has  many  times  plotted  conquests  which  have  not 
yet  been  made.  Catharine  the  Second,  who  divided  Po- 
land with  Austria  and  Prussia,  planned  a  division  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  also.  Paul  the  First  held  correspondence 
with  Napoleon,  and  ordered  an  army  of  invasion  to  set 
out  for  India.  The  Moscow  Gazette  in  1832  declared  that 
the  next  treaty  with  England  must  be  made  at  Calcutta. 
Nicholas  began  the  war  which  terminated  in  the  Crimea,  for 
the  possession  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  his  proposition 
to  the  English  ambassador  for  a  division  of  the  sick  man's 
assets,  can  hardly  have  faded  from  the  memory  of  many  who 
are  still  living.  The  last  Turkish  war  was  fomented  by  Rus- 
sian emissaries  in  the  Balkan  peninsula  for  a  like  purpose. 


46  Slav  or  Saxon. 

There  is  no  better  illustration  of  the  greed  of  Russia, 
and  of  the  unprincipled  manner  in  which  she  seeks  to 
absorb  her  smaller  and  weaker  neighbors,  than  the  events 
which  have  recently  taken  place  in  Bulgaria.  The  sover- 
eign of  that  country  was  deeply  beloved  by  his  subjects, 
but  because,  in  obedience  to  their  wishes,  he  was  unwilling 
to  carry  out  the  policy  of  Russia  at  the  time  of  the  revo- 
lution in  Eastern  Roumelia,  Russia  determined  that  he 
should  no  longer  rule.  First,  he  was  dismissed  in  dis- 
grace from  the  colonelcy  of  a  Russian  regiment  to  which 
he  had  been  appointed.  We  next  read  that  the  Russian 
newspapers  are  urging  the  Czar  to  intervene  in  Bulgaria 
unless  Prince  Alexander  is  speedily  deposed  by  his  own 
subjects.  Now  Russian  newspapers  urge  nothing  in 
opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the  Russian  government,  and 
we  can  fairly  understand  by  this  that  the  Russian  govern- 
ment desires  to  intervene  unless  Alexander  is  deposed. 
Bulgaria  is  infested  with  Russian  agents.  Bulgarian 
regiments  are  corrupted  by  Russian  gold,  and  on  the  2ist 
of  August  a  regiment  of  cavalry  is  detained  in  Sofia  after 
nightfall  when  other  troops  had  retired  to  their  barracks, 
and  about  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  they  surround  the 
palace  of  the  prince.  Alexander  is  in  bed.  The  revo- 
lutionary leaders  force  their  way  to  his  ante-chamber  and 
seize  him.  He  is  made  a  prisoner  on  his  own  yacht  and 
conducted  to  Russia.  The  report  is  spread  that  he  has 
abdicated.  The  Russian  press  now  announce  that  they 
do  not  believe  that  the  other  powers  will  interfere  with 
Russia's  "  direct  pacification  of  Bulgaria."  Zankoff,  the 
leader  of  the  insurrection,  is  made  minister  and  proclaims 


Russian  Conquests  and  Aggressions.  47 

that  the  Czar  will  protect  Bulgaria.  But  the  crime  of  the 
capture  of  Alexander  is  so  infamous  that  the  Russian 
government  does  not  dare  to  avow  openly  its  participation 
in  the  measure.  Alexander  lands  at  Reni,  but  Russia 
does  not  venture  to  detain  him  within  her  borders.  He 
finds  that  his  people  have  arisen  almost  to  a  man  in  his 
behalf.  A  great  concourse  meet  him  at  every  point. 
Soldiers  who  joined  the  insurrection  confess  that  they  re- 
ceived twenty  rubles  each,  and  were  told  that  Alexander 
had  plotted  to  sell  Bulgaria  to  the  Turks.  The  St, 
Petersburg  Gazette  advises  Alexander  not  to  resume  the 
government,  "  as  it  will  result  in  a  second  and  more  dis- 
astrous overthrow."  DeGiers  says  that  Russia  will  not 
occupy  Bulgaria  while  it  remains  tranquil,  but  that  Rus- 
sia's position  will  be  critical  should  Alexander  insist  upon 
executing  the  conspirators.  Now,  if  Russia  did  not  incite 
the  revolt,  of  what  interest  is  it  to  her  whether  or  not  po- 
litical crime  is  punished  in  a  neighboring  country  ?  Zankoff 
is  arrested,  but  Alexander  is  compelled  to  order  his  re- 
lease. On  August  3Oth,  Alexander  sends  a  most  submis- 
sive telegram  to  the  Czar,  offering  proofs  of  unalterable 
devotion.  He  says:  "Russia  has  given  me  my  crown; 
it  is  into  the  hands  of  Russia's  sovereign  that  I  am  ready 
to  render  it."  The  Czar  replies :  "  I  cannot  approve  of 
your  return  to  Bulgaria,  foreseeing  from  it  sinister  con- 
sequences to  the  kingdom  so  sorely  tried.  .  .  .  Your 
Highness  must  decide  your  own  course ;  I  reserve  to 
myself  to  judge  what  my  father's  venerated  memory, 
the  interests  of  Russia,  and  the  peace  of  the  East,  require 
of  me." 


48  Slav  or  Saxon. 

Alexander  now  found  himself  abandoned  by  the  other 
powers.  Germany,  Austria,  and  Russia  forbade  him  to 
execute  the  plotters  against  him,  thus  depriving  him  of 
the  very  essence  of  power.  The  German  press  was  en- 
thusiastic in  his  behalf,  but  Bismarck  repressed  them  on 
account  of  the  value  of  the  Russian  alliance  in  the  event 
of  a  war  with  France.  So  Alexander  resigns.  He  says  : 
"  I  cannot  remain  in  Bulgaria,  for  the  Czar  will  not  permit 
me.  I  am  forced  to  quit  the  throne.  The  independence 
of  Bulgaria  requires  that  I  leave  the  country;  if  I  did 
not,  Russia  would  occupy  it."  Regents  are  appointed. 
The  Czar  agrees  to  recognize  the  regency,  the  union 
of  Bulgaria  and  of  Roumelia,  and  will  give  guaranties 
fpr  the  independence  of  Bulgaria  as  soon  as  Alexander 
is  gone. 

Great  animosity  is  shown  at  Sofia  against  Russian  par- 
tisans, and  great  enthusiasm  is  everywhere  displayed  for 
Alexander.  The  affection  of  the  Bulgarian  people  for 
their  prince  is  everywhere  shown.  But  all  this  is  brutally 
disregarded  by  Russian  selfishness.  And  as  soon  as  the 
regency  is  appointed  which  Russia  has  promised  to  rec- 
ognize, the  St.  Petersburg  press  (the  pliant  tool  of  Rus- 
sian policy)  immediately  sees  "  that  it  contains  elements 
of  fresh  complications."  The  Czar  will  recognize  the 
regency,  but  only  on  condition  that  no  acts  of  violence  be 
committed,  and  acts  of  violence  are  continually  incited  by 
Russian  agents.  The  Bulgarian  Sobranje  resolve  to  court- 
martial  the  officers  inculpated  in  kidnapping  Alexander, 
and  denounce  the  "  infamous  coup  de  main  of  August  2ist, 
which  was  organized  by  a  handful  of  miscreants  and 


Russian  Conquests  and  Aggressions.  49 

which  caused  a  feeling  of  deep  revolt  among  the  Bulga- 
rians." 

The  trial  of  the  revolutionists  proceeds  in  spite  of  the 
Russian  prohibition.  The  Sobranje  address  the  Czar, 
asking  his  protection  over  the  independence  of  the  coun- 
try, and  receive  the  sinister  reply  that  Russia  "  is  not  only 
resolved  to  maintain  the  independence  of  Bulgaria,  but 
has  reserved  for  herself the  right  of  defending  it." 

But  soon  the  conspirators,  instead  of  being  punished, 
are  demanding,  by  means  of  Russian  influence,  a  direct 
representation  in  the  government ;  and  Stambuloff,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Regency,  negotiates  with  Zankoff,  chief  of 
the  revolutionists,  who  promises  to  recognize  the  regency 
on  condition  that  some  of  the  foreign  portfolios  are  allot- 
ted to  the  Russian  party  !  General  Kaulbars  is  sent  as 
Russian  agent,  and  thanks  Zankoff  and  Jiis  friends  for 
their  kindly  welcome,  asking  them  (not  the  regency)  to 
announce  throughout  the  country  that  the  Czar  will  give 
protection  to  Bulgaria  on  condition  that  full  confidence  be 
placed  in  him.  Kaulbars  declares  that  political  prisoners 
must  be  released  and  the  state  of  siege  raised,  and  unless 
Russia's  demands  are  obeyed  he  will  leave  Bulgaria, 
and  the  occupation  of  the  country  will  follow.  He  de- 
mands the  indefinite  postponement  of  the  election  for 
members  of  the  National  Assembly  ;  but  this  is  not  done. 
He  sends  a  brutal  circular  to  the  Russian  consuls  in  Bul- 
garia directing  them  to  inform  the  people  of  its  contents. 
It  declares  that  the  time  for  mere  words  has  ended  ;  that 
the  Czar  can  now  be  convinced  only  by  acts.  He  accuses 
the  Bulgarians  of  insubordination,  and  declares  that  Rus- 


50  Slav  or  Saxon. 

sia  cannot  allow  Bulgaria  to  try  the  kidnappers  of  Alex- 
ander, nor  can  Alexander  return.  Kaulbars  makes  a 
menacing  speech,  but  is  hooted  from  the  platform  by  the 
enraged  people.  But  soon  Russia  finds  that  she  is  not 
to  deal  with  Bulgaria  alone.  The  Hungarians  resent  her 
interference,  and  Austria  announces  that  she  will  not  per- 
mit any  single  power  to  intervene  by  arms  in  Bulgarian 
affairs.  Kaulbars  orders  the  commander  at  Rustchuck  to 
release  the  political  conspirators,  threatening  to  hold  him 
responsible  if  he  disobeys,  and  promising  him  the  "  rank 
of  commanding-general  when  the  Russians  arrive."  The 
commander  declines  to  comply,  and  the  soldiers  applaud 
his  conduct.  Kaulbars  now  telegraphs  the  Czar  that  he 
must  either  be  recalled  or  furnished  with  troops.  In  the 
elections  four  hundred  and  eighty  representatives  of  the 
party  of  the  regency  are  chosen  as  against  forty-one  of 
all  other  parties.  The  majorities  are  immense.  But  now 
Russia  declares  the  elections  illegal  and  demands  a  post- 
ponement of  the  Sobranje.  The  government  refuses  to 
yield.  It  is  reported  that  Kaulbars  tries  to  win  over 
several  of  the  Bulgarian  garrisons  to  work  a  revolution 
in  favor  of  Russia.  He  is  treated  with  coldness  every- 
where. By  Russian  intrigue,  Turkey  is  won  over,  and  the 
Turkish  representative  informs  the  ministry  that  he  is  in- 
structed to  act  in  concert  with  Kaulbars,  and  advises  them 
to  concede  to  the  Russian  demands  and  postpone  the 
Sobranje  ;  but  he  is  informed  that  the  Bulgarian  govern- 
ment will  no  more  brook  Turkish  than  Russian  interfer- 
ence, but  will  resist  both,  with  the  comforting  assurance 
that  any  misfortunes  likely  to  overtake  Bulgaria  would 


Russian  Conquests  and  Aggressions.  5 1 

never  compare  in  seriousness  with  the  retribution  await- 
ing the  infatuation  of  Turkey. 

The  Sobranje  decide  to  send  to  the  Czar  a  deputation 
to  complain  of  the  action  of  Kaulbars,  but  the  Russian 
consuls  are  ordered  to  refuse  passports,  and  Kaulbars 
informs  the  government  that  Russia  will  regard  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Sobranje  as  void.  The  Russian  consul  at 
Varna  threatens  to  bombard  the  town  unless  the  prefect 
permits  free  access  of  the  Russo-Bulgarian  partisans  to 
the  consulate,  and  Kaulbars  informs  the  Bulgarian  foreign 
minister  that  the  Russian  gun-boats  there  will  vigorously 
affirm  their  importance  if  events  render  it  necessary. 

In  compliance  with  the  demands  of  Kaulbars,  the  plot- 
ters against  Alexander  are  released.  And  now  the  Russian, 
Nabakoff,  leads  a  band  of  Montenegrins  at  midnight 
and  attacks  the  prefecture  at  Burgas,  seizes  the  prefect, 
and  proclaims  Russian  rule  :  but  his  revolt  also,  is  soon 
quelled.  These  plotters  too  are  tried,  but  Kaulbars  de- 
clares the  trial  void.  England  and  Austria  are  at  last 
awakened  and  act  with  firmness  to  prevent  further  out- 
rages. Lord  Salisbury  denounces  "  the  midnight  conspira- 
cy, led  by  men  debauched  by  foreign  gold,  which  hunted 
Prince  Alexander  from  the  throne  of  Bulgaria  and  out- 
raged the  conscience  and  sentiment  of  Europe."  Prudence 
will  not  permit  an  immediate  resort  to  arms,  so  Russia 
will  bide  her  time. 

Kaulbars  is  recalled,  and  all  the  Russian  consuls  leave 
with  him.  There  is  a  prospect  of  war  between  France 
and  Germany.  Russia  will  wait  until  the  breaking  out  of 
hostilities  and  then,  no  longer  fearing  the  strong  arm  of 


52  Slav  or  Saxon. 

the  German  Chancellor,  she  will  seize  the  coveted  prize. 
But  the  new  Reichstag  sustains  Bismarck ;  the  Army  bill 
passes ;  the  immediate  danger  of  war  with  France  is 
over,  and  again  we  see  evidence  of  Russian  interference. 
Insurrections  break  out  at  Silistria  and  Rustchuck.  When 
they  are  suppressed,  and  when  the  insurgents  are  cap- 
tured, it  is  found  that  some  of  them  are  claimed  as  Rus- 
sian subjects.  It  was  not  until  the  recent  attempts  of  the 
Nihilists  upon  the  life  of  the  Czar  put  him  in  fear  for  his 
personal  safety,  that  we  ceased  to  hear  news  of  Russian 
interference  in  Bulgaria  ;  and  later  still,  the  Russian  in- 
trigues are  re-commenced. 

The  Bulgarians,  in  their  recent  trials,  have  shown  high 
qualities.  In  patriotism  and  devotion  to  their  liberties 
they  appear  to  be  inferior  to  no  people  in  Europe  to-day; 
and  while,  from  the  blighting  influence  of  Turkish  domi- 
nation in  the  past,  they  are  still  quite  backward  in  material 
civilization,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that,  if  they  are 
allowed  the  right  of  self-government,  they  will  soon  step 
to  a  front  rank  among  the  peoples  of  Europe  in  the  arts 
of  civilized  life.  Such  a  people  is  worthy  of  a  better  fate 
than  that  of  absorption  into  the  mass  of  the  Russian 
Empire. 

The  present  aggressions  of  the  Czar  are  thus  epitomized 
by  Charles  Marvin  : 

Russia  has  a  frontier  line  across  Asia  five  thousand  miles 
in  length,  no  single  spot  of  which  can  be  regarded  as  perma- 
nent. Starting  from  the  Pacific,  we  find  that  she  hankers  for 
the  northern  part  of  Corea,  regards  as  undetermined  the 
boundary  with  Manchuria  and  Mongolia,  regrets  that  she  gave 


Russian  Conquests  and  Aggressions.  5  3 

back  Kuldja,  hopes  that  she  will  some  day  have  Kashgar, 
questions  the  Ameer's  right  to  rule  Afghan  Turkestan,  demands 
the  gates  of  Herat,  keeps  open  a  great  and  growing  complica- 
tion with  Persia  about  the  Khorassan  frontier,  treats  more  and 
more  every  year  the  Shah  as  a  dependent  sovereign,  discusses 
having  some  day  a  port  in  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  believes  she 
will  be  the  future  mistress  of  the  whole  of  Asia  Minor. 

Let  us  briefly  review  the  course  of  the  Russians  in 
Turkestan  during  the  past  twenty  years.  Central  Asia, 
while  it  contains  large  and  valuable  oases,  adapted  to 
stock-raising  and  many  other  forms  of  agriculture,  has  no 
such  stores  of  wealth  as  would  justify  its  conquest  for  its 
own  sake.  Possibly  the  Russians  did  not  know  this  when 
they  first  undertook  its  subjection,  but  they  have  long 
since  understood  it,  and  the  continued  march  of  Russian 
conquest  must  have  in  view  some  object  beyond  the  mere 
possession  of  these  Central  Asian  districts.  The  expense 
of  administering  the  government  in  these  regions  is  con- 
siderably greater  than  the  revenues  derived  from  them, 
yet  the  Russians  press  their  conquests  farther  and  farther. 
Why  do  they  do  this  ?  Their  object  is  adequately  ex- 
plained by  the  words  and  acts  of  some  of  their  own  great 
military  authorities. 

The  designs  of  the  Emperor  Paul,  who  projected  a 
march  upon  India  (which  was  to  be  stimulated  by  raising 
hopes  of  plunder  in  the  minds  of  the  wild  nomads  of 
Central  Asia,  who  were  to  be  invited  to  join  them),  were 
renewed  in  1864,  when  the  Russians  first  broke  through 
the  sand  belt  which  then  formed  the  Southern  boundary 
of  the  empire,  and  took  the  rich  and  populous  city  of 


54  Slav  or  Saxon. 

Tashkend.  This  city  contained  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants.  It  has  been  largely  remodelled 
by  the  Russians,  is  well  built,  and  possesses  a  theatre, 
a  public  library,  etc.,  and  is  entirely  hedged  in  by  beauti- 
ful gardens  and  orchards  that  surround  it.  When  this 
city  was  acquired  by  the  Russians,  Tchernayeff,  the 
leader  of  the  expedition,  writes :  "  The  mysterious  veil 
which  has  hitherto  covered  the  conquest  of  India,  a  con- 
quest looked  upon  until  now  as  fabulous,  is  beginning  to 
lift  itself  before  my  eyes."  In  1868,  the  overthrow  of 
Bokhara  followed,  but  its  independent  government  was 
not  entirely  destroyed.  The  Emir  was  permitted  to  re- 
main upon  the  throne,  but  he  became  a  vassal  and  the 
blind  instrument  of  Russian  rule.  The  administration  of 
the  province  was  less  expensive  in  this  form  than  in  any 
other.  The  conquest  of  Khiva  followed  in  1873,  and  here 
too  a  kind  of  autonomy  was  preserved,  but  saddled  with 
an  immense  war  indemnity,  and  totally  dependent  upon 
Russia.  In  1876,  Khokand  was  overthrown  and  bodily 
incorporated. 

But  it  was  found  by  this  time  that  these  Eastern 
khanates  were  not  upon  the  most  direct  road  to  India. 
The  elevated  and  impassable  barriers  of  the  Hindoo- 
Koosh  stood  in  the  way,  and  a  passage  must  be  found 
more  to  the  West  and  better  suited  to  military  operations 
having  their  base  in  the  Caucasus  and  on  the  shores  of 
the  Caspian.  Meantime  a  great  number  of  steamers  had 
been  constructed,  and  were  used  in  the  petroleum  traffic 
on  that  inland  sea.  The  Caucasian  port  of  Baku  in  1879 
contained  only  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants.  It  has  now 


Russian  Conquests  and  Aggressions.  55 

a  population  of  fifty  thousand.  A  suitable  harbor,  Kras- 
novodsk,  was  found  on  the  Eastern  shores  of  the  Caspian, 
which  are  shallow  and  generally  inaccessible.  Skobeleff, 
the  most  brilliant  of  Russian  generals,  whose  name  became 
famous  in  the  last  Turkish  war,  projected  an  expedition 
against  the  native  tribes.  A  stretch  of  desert  was  over- 

o 

come  by  means  of  a  railway  laid  in  the  sand,  over  which 
the  army  was  transported  from  the  Caspian  to  the  assault 
of  Gok  Tepe,  a  city  which  was  heroically  defended  by 
the  natives,  the  women  fighting  with  the  men.  Its  cap- 
ture was  followed  by  the  slaughter  of  thirty  thousand  in- 
habitants. It  was  this  same  Skobeleff  who  said  :  "  It  will 
be  in  the  end  our  duty  to  organize  masses  of  Asiatic  cav- 
alry and  to  hurl  them  into  India  under  the  banner  of 
blood  and  pillage  as  a  vanguard,  as  it  were,  thus  reviving 
the  times  of  a  Tamerlane." 

Then  AlikhanorT,  an  officer  who  had  been  degraded  to 
the  ranks  for  misconduct,  was  sent  as  an  emissary  to 
Merv,  the  ancient  Maru,  "  Queen  of  the  World."  He  in- 
gratiated himself  with  the  Tekkes.  Soon  Merv  submit- 
ted to  Russian  dominion.  The  Russians  called  it  a 
voluntary  submission,  and  said  "  they  would  send  an 
officer  to  administer  the  government."  But  instead  of 
an  officer  an  army  went,  which  held  the  whole  population 
as  in  a  vice.  Along  this  Western  road  there  is  no  natural 
impediment  to  an  attack  upon  India.  A  range  of  hills 
less  than  a  thousand  feet  high,  easily  accessible  to  artillery, 
is  all  that  lies  between  the  Russians  and  Herat,  the 
Gate  of  India.  From  this,  the  road  lies  through  fertile 
plains  and  easy  passes  to  the  Western  limits  of  the  British 


56  Slav  or  Saxon. 

dominions.  Nor  did  the  Russians  stop  at  Merv.  An 
English  commission  was  sent  to  adjust  the  boundaries  of 
Afghanistan  with  the  Russians,  but  the  latter,  without 
waiting  for  the  commission  to  do  its  work,  advanced  upon 
Herat,  in  two  directions,  by  the  valley  of  the  Murghab 
to  Penjdeh,  and  by  the  Hari-Rud  to  Pul-i-khatum.  To 
justify  their  encroachments  upon  the  territory  of  the 
Afghans,  they  set  up  a  claim  that  the  frontier  of  Afghan- 
istan was  fifty  miles  South  of  that  shown  by  their  own 
maps  as  late  as  iSSi,  and  that  Penjdeh  and  the  Zulfikar 
Pass  were  North  of  the  line.  Penjdeh,  in  fact,  had  always 
belonged  to  Afghanistan  and  paid  tribute  to  the  Ameer. 

The  Russian  railway  is  already  completed  to  a  point 
not  more  than  eight  hundred  miles  distant  from  the  rail- 
way system  of  India,  and  the  rapidity  of  communication 
from  Russia  to  the  probable  scene  of  the  conflict  (six  days 
from  the  South  of  Russia  to  the  centre  of  Asia)  gives  her 
a  great  advantage  in  concentrating  troops  over  England, 
who  must  resort  to  a  long  and  tedious  line  of  communi- 
cation by  sea.  Persia  is  little  more  than  a  vassal  state ; 
Russia  can  count  upon  its  support  as  well  as  upon  that  of 
the  wild  tribes  of  Asia,  when  the  prize  of  the  immense 
booty  of  India  is  placed  before  their  imagination  as  the 
reward  of  conquest.  The  prestige  of  Russia  among 
Asiatic  peoples  is  immense.  Witness  the  following  ex- 
tract from  the  Persian  "  Akhtar  "  : 

During  the  last  thirty  years  a  great  deal  has  been  said  and 
written  by  a  large  portion  of  the  English  press  and  influential 
statesmen  about  the  growing  hostility  between  Great  Britain 
and  Russia.  But  as  yet  they  have  done  nothing,  and  the  Rus- 


Russian  Conquests  and  Aggressions.  57 

sians  know  very  well  that,  apart  from  these  threats,  empty  out- 
cries, and  unsuccessful  protests,  they  have  nothing  to  fear 
from  the  English.  The  Russians,  therefore,  have  not  heeded 
in  the  least  this  flood  of  empty  words,  and  have  proceeded  un- 
disturbed and  unchecked  in  the  carrying  out  of  their  plans. 
The  English  have  always  and  everywhere  pursued  their  own 
interests  of  state,  and,  in  our  opinion,  the  Russians  are  much 
more  justified  in  the  pursuit  of  similar  objects,  if  we  consider 
their  close  proximity  to  the  Mohammedan  countries  in  ques- 
tion. Besides,  Russia  possesses  greater  power  and  authority 
than  England.  She  has  a  better  right  to  undertake  conquests, 
because  she  shows  a  greater  respect  for  the  laws  and  rights  of 
the  natives  than  England,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  is  meddling 
in  the  most  shameless  manner  with  the  affairs  of  India,  Aden, 
Cyprus,  Afghanistan,  Egypt,  Zanzibar,  and  Beloochistan. 

Makdum  Kali,  a  Turkoman  bard,  predicted  not  long 
ago,  that  the  whole  of  the  world  would  succumb  to  the 
power  of  Russia.  This  is  the  Asiatic  idea  of  it.  It  is 
true,  the  Russians  have  frequently  declared  they  have  no 
designs  on  India,  but  in  1882  M.  DeGiers  said  that 
they  had  no  intention  of  occupying  Merv  and  Sarakhs, 
both  of  which  are  to-day  Russian  cities.  We  know,  more- 
over, that  Skobeleff  actually  forwarded  to  General  Kauf- 
mann,  during  the  last  Turkish  war,  a  plan  for  a  campaign 
in  Central  Asia  and  for  exciting  against  England  not  only 
Afghanistan  but  her  own  native  subjects  in  India,  and 
that  Kaufmann's  military  preparations  for  this  purpose 
had  commenced,  but  were  stopped  when  the  Berlin 
treaty  was  signed.  What  would  be  the  conduct  of  the 
Indian  subjects  of  Her  Majesty,  in  case  of  an  invasion,  is 


58  Slav  or  Saxon. 

very  uncertain.  English  rule  in  India  is  no  doubt  bene- 
ficial. The  people  are  gradually  submitting  to  the  in- 
fluences of  modern  civilization,  but  this  process,  being 
mostly  voluntary,  goes  on  much  more  slowly  than  the 
Russianizing  of  the  tribes  of  Tartary,  and  is  much  less 
radical.  The  prejudices  of  the  native  populations  are  very 
deep-seated,  nor  can  they  wholly  forget,  however  salutary 
English  rule  may  be  at  present,  that  England  was  guilty 
of  most  unpardonable  wrongs  in  the  past.  The  English 
do  not  assimilate  with  them,  do  not  intermarry,  they  are 
an  alien  race.  Very  few  of  them  reside  permanently  in 
the  country.  An  Englishman  always  looks  forward  to 
the  time  when  he  shall  return.  The  absenteeism  which 
has  been  the  foundation  of  so  much  dissatisfaction  in 
Ireland,  exists  also  in  India.  The  natives  feel  that  they 
are  being  exploited  for  the  benefit  of  Englishmen,  and 
however  beneficial  the  process  may  be  to  them,  they  do 
not  like  to  have  good  done  to  them  in  this  way  against 
their  will.  This,  together  with  the  gradual  disintegration 
of  the  forces  of  the  British  Empire,  and  the  continually 
increasing  vacillation  of  the  home  government  from  party 
changes  and  otherwise,  weakens  greatly  the  power  of 
Great  Britain  to  defend  her  Asiatic  possessions. 

There  is  indeed  one  respect  in  which  England  has  an 
enormous  advantage.  Her  industrial  system  is  such,  that 
her  wealth  and  productive  power  is  incomparably  greater 
than  that  of  her  northern  rival.  From  the  general  igno- 
rance and  despotic  institutions  of  Russia,  there  can  never 
come  that  abundance  of  material  resources  which  is 
secured  by  the  general  intelligence  and  liberal  govern- 


Russian  Conquests  and  Aggressions.  59 

ment  of  England.  The  system  of  serfdom  has  kept  back 
the  material  development  of  Russia  in  the  same  way  that 
negro  slavery  retarded  that  of  our  Southern  States.  The 
present  ownership  of  land  in  common  by  the  village  com- 
munities of  peasants,  as  well  as  their  clumsy  system  of 
tilling  the  soil  without  renewing  it,  is  almost  equally 
fatal.  Among  the  nations  of  the  Old  World,  England  is 
bound  to  retain  a  preeminent  position  in  the  matter  of 
wealth  and  all  that  wealth  can  give,  and  this  advantage, 
in  a  military  point  of  view,  is  one  that  is  continually 
increasing.  Warfare  depends  less  upon  the  numbers  and 
the  individual  qualities  of  the  men  engaged  in  it,  and 
more  upon  the  material  resources  which  sustain  it.  The 
great  engines  of  modern  destruction,  the  Catling  gun,  the 
torpedo,  the  new  artillery,  the  iron-clad,  the  new  system 
of  fortifications,  and  the  thousand  appliances  of  military 
operations  to-day  are  all  very  costly.  England  could  stand  a 
protracted  conflict  with  much  less  strain  upon  her  resources 
than  Russia.  In  the  intelligence  required  to  direct  the 
struggle,  she  will  also  maintain  a  constant  advantage. 

There  is  another  weakness  which  seems  to  be  inherent 
in  the  Russian  system  of  government,  and  which  will  al- 
ways cripple  it  seriously  for  military  purposes.  The  des- 
potism requires  secrecy  and  impunity  for  the  acts  of  its 
agents.  The  peculations  of  the  servants  of  the  Czar  must 
not  be  exposed  by  the  public  press.  The  people  are  to 
have  no  hand  in  reforming  the  abuses  from  which  they 
suffer.  The  result  is,  that  the  corruption  of  Russian 
officials  is  the  rule  rather  than  thefexception.  Every  one 
steals,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest.  This  dishonesty 


60  Slav  or  Saxon. 

spreads  from  the  officials  to  the  merchants,  the  peasants, 
and  all  other  classes.  It  is  a  Russian  proverb  that  Christ 
himself  would  steal  if  his  hands  were  not  nailed  to  the 
Cross.  Most  shameless  of  all  are  those  who  furnish  sup- 
plies for  the  army  in  time  of  war.  Immense  sums,  paid  by 
the  government  for  the  maintenance  of  the  troops,  never 
reach  their  destination  at  all,  and  the  army,  half  naked  and 
starving,  is  called  upon  to  endure  the  most  terrible  priva- 
tions. Hundreds  of  thousands  die  from  mere  lack  of  proper 
supplies  and  hospital  appliances,  and  the  effective  power 
of  those  who  survive  is  greatly  weakened.  The  reverses 
sustained  by  Russia  in  the  Crimea  and  in  the  late  Bulga- 
rian war,  were  due  to  this  cause  more  than  to  any  thing 
else,  and  this  evil,  unless  corrected,  is  likely  to  prove  dis- 
astrous to  the  Russian  arms  in  a  long  and  exhaustive 
struggle.  But  if  Russia  should  be  defeated  in  future 
wars,  the  result  would  be  rather  a  temporary  check 
than  a  permanent  limit  to  her  encroachments.  The 
empire  is  too  vast  to  be  wholly  subdued,  and  if  a  prov- 
ince be  wrested  from  it  (as  Bessarabia  after  the  Crimean 
war)  the  loss  is  sure  to  be  made  good  to  a  despotism 
which  knows  so  well  how  to  bide  its  time.  During  many 
centuries  Russia  has  grown  through  disasters. 

We  have  shown  at  least  the  danger  of  future  Russian 
domination  under  favorable  circumstances  ;  let  us  next 
consider  what  would  be  the  effect  upon  mankind  of  the 
supremacy  of  Muscovite  power.  Let  us  look  into  the 
history  and  the  present  condition  of  that  great  empire, 
that  we  may  see  as  near  as  may  be  what  the  world  would 
be  if  it  should  become  subject  to  Russian  influence. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  HISTORY   OF   RUSSIA. 

No  one  should  open  a  history  of  Russia  with  the  hope 
that  he  will  get  from  it  that  gratification  which  most  of 
the  fields  of  modern  history  afford.  There  is  less  to  attract 
our  sympathy,  less  to  inspire  our  enthusiasm,  less  fellow- 
feeling  excited  than  in  the  struggle  of  the  barons  against 
John,  of  the  Puritans  against  Charles,  of  the  free  cities  of 
Italy  against  the  imperialism  of  Germany,  of  the  Dutch 
Republic  against  the  bigotry  of  Philip.  Somehow  events 
seem  to  take  the  wrong  track.  As  civilization  grows,  it 
appears  only  as  a  new  bulwark  of  imperial  power.  As 
knowledge  enters,  it  strengthens  only  the  hand  of  the 
master  and  teaches  him  how  to  weave  the  more  securely 
the  toils  which  bind  the  slave.  The  development  of  agri- 
culture fastens  the  serf  to  the  soil ;  the  opening  of  the 
mines  adds  new  terrors  to  penal  servitude ;  the  conquest 
of  the  boundless  steppes  of  Siberia  provides  a  new  place 
for  horrible  punishments  to  be  inflicted  upon  the  subject 
who  offends.  The  growth  of  Russia  has  been  the  growth 
of  all  that  we  detest.  The  great  sovereigns  of  Russia 
have  been  greatest  in  crime  and  outrage.  We  learn  in 
these  pages  that  human  progress  is  not  universal,  that  the 

61 


62  Slav  or  Saxon. 

eddies  which  turn  back  are  strong  and  deep.  We  read  of 
the  overthrow  of  liberal  institutions,  the  subjection  of  free 
cities,  the  annihilation  of  enlightened  communities,  for 
the  sole  reason  that  these  became  inconvenient  or  dan- 
gerous to  arbitrary  power.  The  chivalry,  culture,  and 
magnanimity  which  elsewhere  so  often  throw  a  glamour 
over  tyranny  itself,  and  half  reconcile  us  to  its  injustices, 
even  they  are  absent  from  these  gloomy  pages.  The 
naked  form  of  force  stands  to-day,  as  of  old,  amid  the 
gloomy  rocks  of  Caucasus,  and  rivets  the  same  iron 
through  the  Promethean  breast  of  that  free  spirit  that 
gives  to  mortals  the  fire  which  comes  from  heaven. 

Russian  history  has  been  wholly  barren  in  all  great  in- 
tellectual struggles.  It  was  a  stranger  to  the  Reforma- 
tion and  to  the  Renaissance.  Russia  has  no  traditions. 
It  has  been  a  vast  rural  empire,  a  great  state  of  peasant 
communities,  ruled  by  a  despot  and  his  army.  Even  its 
church  has  little  history  in  common  with  that  of  the  rest 
of  Europe. 

Another  thing  strikes  us  in  Russian  history:  the  people 
do  not  appear  to  have  made  their  own  history  as  else- 
where ;  they  have  rather  submitted  to  influences  which 
they  have  had  no  hand  in  directing.  It  is  a  growth  in- 
fluenced more  by  external  than  by  internal  causes.  The 
normal  development  of  the  race  has  been  hindered  at 
every  step  ;  the  invasion  of  the  Mongols  stopped  it  in  its 
youth  and  drove  the  civilization  of  Russia  from  its  early 
European  channel.  Then  its  Mongolian  development 
was  .stayed,  and  it  was  dragged  back  into  the  current  of 
European  life  by  the  giant  arm  of  Peter  the  Great. 


The  History  of  Russia.  63 

Let  us  review  briefly  the  backward  movement  from 
freedom  to  autocracy.  The  first  that  we  see  of  the  early 
Slavs  in  history,  we  find  them  scattered  in  little  villages, 
each  village  surrounded  by  its  palisades  and  controlled 
by  its  communal  village  organization,  the  same  which 
exists  among  the  peasants  down  to  the  present  time. 
This  is  called  the  mir.  It  is  perhaps  the  most  primitive 
form  of  organized  social  existence.  Through  all  the 
changes  which  have  taken  place  in  higher  organisms  it  has 
preserved  its  rudimentary  character. 

In  the  formation  of  the  autocracy,  these  village  organi- 
zations, too  small  to  be  in  the  way,  too  weak  to  be  feared, 
were  suffered  to  remain  in  their  old  shape,  like  the  proto- 
zoa which  exist  to-day,  remnants  of  the  earliest  form  of 
organic  life,  while  the  highly  developed  monsters  of  the 
Saurian  age  have  long  since  disappeared.  The  mir,  or 
village  community,  is  made  up  of  all  full-grown  males 
in  the  village,  who  are  free  from  paternal  authority.  Each 
village  is  a  tiny  patriarchal  republic.  A  meeting  may  be 
convened  by  any  member.  It  is  held  out  of  doors,  the 
utmost  confusion  prevails,  there  is  no  chairman,  everybody 
talks  at  once,  the  crowd  listens  to  whom  it  will.  Before 
any  thing  can  be  done  it  must  be  agreed  to  by  all.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  the  rule  of  a  majority.  The  conclusion 
reached,  whatever  it  may  be,  must,  like  the  verdict  of  a 
jury  or  the  resolutions  of  a  Quaker-meeting,  embody  the 
sense  of  the  whole  assembly.  They  talk  and  convince 
each  other,  until  one  side  or  the  other  gives  in.  When 
opinions  cannot  be  reconciled,  they  sometimes  fall  to 
berating  each  other,  and  a  sound  drubbing  is  occasionally 


64  Slav  or  Saxon. 

the  means  of  bringing  about  that  harmony  of  thought 
which  their  usages  require.  While  the  present  law  of 
the  empire  permits  a  majority  to  control,  the  peasants  do 
not  follow  any  such  plan,  but  adhere  firmly  to  their 
ancient  custom.  In  their  discussions  there  is  the  fullest 
liberty  of  speech.  Even  political  questions  are  some- 
times talked  over  by  the  peasants  in  their  meetings,  a 
thing  which  occurs  nowhere  else  in  Russia,  and  instances 
are  known  where  the  Starosta,  their  chief  functionary, 
in  the  simplicity  of  his  heart  has  read  revolutionary  pro- 
clamations which  were  fully  considered,  in  utter  ignorance 
that  this  was  one  of  the  highest  crimes  known  to  Rus- 
sian law.  These  village  communities  are  remarkable  for 
the  humanity  of  many  of  their  rural  customs,  the  duty 
to  help  those  unable  to  work,  and  other  fraternal  no- 
tions. The  highest  respect  prevails  for  the  decisions  of 
the  mir,  which  are  absolute  and  final  in  all  matters 
regulating  their  internal  affairs.  The  Russian  proverb 
is,  "  Whatever  the  mir  decides,  is  ordained  of  God." 

Among  the  primitive  Slavs  there  was  no  national  union. 
They  had  little  idea  even  of  the  unity  of  tribe.  Such  was 
their  love  of  liberty  that  they  resisted  all  authority  out- 
side of  their  own  village.  Of  course  no  people  could  long 
exist  with  so  little  cohesive  power.  The  Slavs  were  torn 
by  dissensions.  As  they  were  unwilling  to  be  ruled  by 
any  among  themselves,  a  family  of  foreign  princes  was 
called  upon  to  administer  the  government.  These  men 
(the  Variagi,  as  they  were  termed)  were  probably  of  Scan- 
dinavian origin.  The  family  of  Rurik  was  the  one  from 
which  the  rulers  were  taken.  At  this  time  the  larger 


TJie  History  of  Russia.  65 

towns,  which  afterwards  became  the  capitals  of  the  prin- 
cipalities, were  controlled  in  a  manner  quite  similar  to  the 
villages.  The  whole  male  population,  rich  and  poor,  were 
summoned  at  the  call  of  any  member.  This  assembly 
was  called  the  vctche.  When  the  princes  of  the  House 
of  Rurik  came,  they  did  not  change  this  primitive  form  of 
organization  ;  they  simply  added  to  it  an  element  of  mil- 
itary power.  The  prince  was  accompanied  by  his  drujina, 
or  military  household  of  fellow  adventurers,  who  ate  at 
his  table  and  were  his  companions  in  battle.  In  many 
of  the  larger  towns,  the  authority  of  the  vetc/ie  was 
still  practically  paramount.  The  prince  generally  found 
it  to  his  interest  to  rule  in  conformity  to  the  will  of 
the  public  assembly.  In  the  House  of  Rurik,  the  eldest 
of  the  blood,  whether  son,  brother,  uncle,  or  other  rela- 
tive, was  chosen  prince  of  the  chief  town  ;  but  this  rule 
was  by  no  means  inflexible.  When  the  prince  proved 
distasteful,  the  I'ctche  assembled,  and  with  the  words 
"  We  salute  thee,  O  Prince,"  "  they  showed  him  the  way 
out,"  and  he  left  with  his  drujina  and  sought  another 
city,  while  the  vctcJie  which  had  expelled  him  called 
another  prince  of  the  house  more  to  their  taste.  When  a 
prince  died,  the  territory  over  which  he  had  exercised  this 
very  limited  sort  of  dominion  was  generally  divided 
among  a  number  of  his  relatives.  As  the  princes  grew  in 
number,  the  communities  over  which  they  were  called  to 
rule  also  increased,  until  there  grew  up  a  sort  of  law  of 
political  supply  and  demand.  The  best  cities  got  the 
best  princes.  The  princes  who  were  not  satisfactory  to 
the  larger  towns  were  compelled  to  hunt  up  smaller  com- 


66  Slav  or  Saxon. 

munities  that  would  take  them  for  rulers.  In  some  of 
the  largest  cities,  before  the  prince  could  exercise  any 
authority,  he  was  required  to  enter  into  the  riada,  or 
written  compact,  which  clearly  set  forth  the  rights  of  the 
people.  This  was  the  case  at  Novgorod  and  Pskov.  In 
Kiev,  the  ancient  capital  of  Russia,  as  well  as  in  many 
smaller  towns,  his  prerogatives  were  probably  greater,  and 
the  influence  of  the  vet f he  less.  If  no  available  prince 
of  the  House  of  Rurik  could  be  found,  the  vetche  some- 
times selected  other  persons,  and  once  a  simple  boyar  or 
noble  of  Russian  blood  was  called  upon  to  administer  the 
government. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  where  the  continuation  of  the 
prince's  authority  depended  upon  his  performing  his 
duties  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  the  people,  that  his 
government  would  be  a  popular  one.  Even  his  drujina, 
his  fellow  adventurers,  were  liable  to  desert  him  if  his 
fortunes  fell. 

Rurik  himself  was  called  to  Novgorod  as  its  first  prince. 
This  ancient  city  was  built  upon  both  banks  of  the 
Volkow,  a  navigable  stream  communicating  with  the 
great  lakes  and  with  the  rivers  of  the  North.  It  became 
at  an  early  day  a  commercial  centre,  and  was  the  largest 
and  wealthiest  city  of  Russia,  containing  at  times  a 
population  of  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  souls. 
The  whole  body  of  the  citizens  were  convoked  at  the 
sound  of  the  great  bell,  and  met  in  the  court  of  laroslaf  ; 
any  citizen,  the  very  humblest,  could  call  them  together. 
The  vetcM  could  annul  the  decree  of  the  prince,  or  dis- 
miss his  officers.  The  meanest  citizen  might  prefer  a 


The  History  of  Russia.  67 

charge  against  him.  It  not  infrequently  occurred  that 
princes  were  discharged  and  recalled  several  times  in  suc- 
cession. The  republic  called  itself  "  My  Lord  Novgorod 
the  Great,"  and  the  people  said:  "Who  can  equal  God 
and  the  Great  Novgorod  ?  "  The  prince  made  an  oath  to 
depose  no  magistrate  without  trial,  and  to  observe  the 
laws  and  privileges  of  the  city.  He  could  not  execute 
justice  without  the  help  of  the  posadnik,  the  local  judge, 
nor  take  any  suit  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  Novgorod. 
The  determinations  of  the  vetche\  like  those  of  the  mir, 
were  made,  not  by  the  majority,  but  by  the  unanimity  of 
voices. 

This  principle  seems  to  be  inherent  in  the  Slav  peo- 
ples. In  Poland  it  required  the  unanimous  choice  of 
the  nobles  to  elect  a  king.  The  opposition  of  a  single 
voice  could  defeat  the  most  important  measures.  This 
led  to  anarchy  and  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Polish  king- 
dom. In  ancient  Novgorod,  too,  great  trouble  came  from 
this  strange  custom.  Rival  assemblies  organized  and 
fought  out  their  battles  on  the  bridge  ;  a  minority  which 
would  not  yield  was  sometimes  drowned  in  the  Volkow. 
When  Novgorod  established  colonies,  each  had  its  own 
vetcht  for  the  management  of  its  local  affairs,  but  it  was 
subject  to  the  decrees  of  the  vetcJie  of  Novgorod.  When 
the  public  assembly  of  the  present  city  was  to  be  con- 
voked upon  matters  affecting  one  of  the  colonies,  the 
colony  was  notified  and  invited  to  attend,  but  there  was 
no  representative  government  ;  those  who  came  simply 
formed  a  part  of  the  vetche  of  Novgorod.  Such  a  crude 
form  of  government  could  not  last.  When  the  interest  of 


68  Slav  or  Saxon. 

the  colony  and  the  parent  state  conflicted,  the  colony 
would  declare  its  independence.  Perhaps  Novgorod 
would  accede  to  this,  generally  there  was  a  war,  but  the 
colonies  were  distant  and  their  subjugation  was  difficult. 
So  it  came  to  pass  that  as  the  colonies  multiplied  the 
process  of  disintegration  kept  going  on.  Pskov  was 
originally  a  Novgorodian  colony  which  became  inde- 
pendent at  an  early  day.  Viatka  was  another. 

When  Rurik  was  called  to  Novgorod,  other  Variag 
princes,  though  not  of  the  same  family,  were  called  to 
Kiev,  a  city  on  the  Dnieper  communicating  directly  with 
the  Black  Sea.  From  thence  they  made  an  expedition 
against  Byzantium,  the  first  of  a  series  of  similar  incur- 
sions, through  which  Greek  civilization  was  brought  into 
Russia.  The  expedition  was  unsuccessful.  Oleg,  the 
brother  of  Rurik,  conquered  Kiev,  and  he  too  sailed 
against  Byzantium,  and  received  contributions  from  the 
Emperor  as  the  price  of  peace.  His  successor,  Igor,  in 
a  third  expedition  ravaged  the  Greek  provinces.  Vladi- 
mir, searching  for  the  best  religion,  adopted  that  of  the 
Greek  church  and  forced  baptism  upon  his  unwilling 
subjects.  Vladimir  divided  the  cities  of  Russia  among 
his  heirs,  but  one  of  them,  laroslaf  the  Great,  subdued  the 
others  and  assumed  supreme  control.  His  code  of  laws 
is  still  extant.  It  resembles  the  contemporary  laws  of 
other  European  nations ;  it  permits  private  revenge  and 
blood  atonement,  provides  for  trial  by  jury,  by  ordeal,  and 
by  compurgation.  Torture  and  capital  punishment  were 
unknown.  laroslaf  held  correspondence  with  European 
states.  Inter-marriages  were  made  between  the  House  of 


The  History  of  Russia.  69 

Rurik  and  other  royal  families.  Russia  of  the  eleventh 
century  was  a  European  state  ;  it  afterwards  became 
Asiatic.  laroslaf  made  of  Kiev  a  great  capital,  containing 
four  hundred  churches  and  many  schools.  He  was  a 
Russian  Charlemagne.  He  divided  his  principality  into 
fiefs  among  his  relatives  and  companions,  but  these  grants 
were  always  temporary  and  revocable  at  his  will. 

The  Variagi  were  called  into  Russia  for  the  purpose  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  ceaseless  strife  of  town  against 
town.  The  continual  partition  of  territory  among  the 
princes  of  the  House  of  Rurik,  their  turmoils  and  dissen- 
sions after  the  death  of  laroslaf  the  Great,  brought  about 
calamities  almost  as  great  as  the  anarchy  of  the  original 
Slavs.  The  only  unity  was  that  of  race,  language,  religion, 
and  historical  development.  The  eldest  of  the  house  was 
nominally  head,  but  had  little  power  over  the  others. 
Gradually  the  tide  of  Russian  emigration  flowed  East,  the 
princes  of  Suzdal  acquired  power  and  attacked  Novgorod. 
That  great  city  became  for  a  time  subject  to  a  prince 
of  Suzdal  named  Andrei,  an  unflinching  tyrant,  and  upon 
his  assassination  disorders  followed  everywhere.  There 
was  pressing  need  of  greater  national  unity. 

Suddenly,  from  the  solitudes  of  the  East,  there  came  a 
strange  and  unknown  power,  which  was  to  accomplish 
this  work.  In  frightful  suffering  and  bloodshed  were  laid 
the  foundations  of  a  gloomy  despotism.  In  Eastern  Asia, 
at  the  foot  of  the  Altai  mountains,  lived  the  wild  race  of 
Tartars.  Under  Genghis  Khan,  the  tribes  of  this  nomadic 
people  were  united.  China  was  laid  waste.  All  in  their 
way  became  a  prey  to  these  savages,  who  knew  no 


70  Slav  or  Saxon. 

distinction  of  age  or  sex.  Soon  these  herds  of  innumera- 
ble horsemen  swept  Westward  under  Batui,  the  lieutenant 
of  the  Khan.  They  invaded  the  plains  of  Russia  and 
defeated  the  army  of  Kiev  at  the  great  battle  of  Kalka. 
Then  they  vanished  as  suddenly  as  they  had  come.  New 
conquests  called  them  elsewhere.  In  a  few  years  they 
returned.  There  was  no  union  anywhere  to  resist  them. 
Such  was  the  discord  among  the  princes,  that  one  faction 
would  invoke  their  aid  for  the  destruction  of  another. 
Everywhere  they  went,  they  demanded  the  tribute  of  a 
tenth  as  the  condition  of  peace.  Terrible  accounts  arc 
given  of  the  appearance  of  this  savage  people.  The  whole 
race  was  an  army  and  marched  together.  Their  wild 
visages,  their  screams,  the  neighing  of  the  horses,  the 
bellowings  of  the  cattle,  struck  terror  at  their  approach. 
One  after  another,  the  cities  of  Russia  fell  before  them 
until  nothing  was  left  but  Novgorod  and  a  small  tract  in 
the  Northwest.  Alexander  Nevski  reigned  in  that  city. 
He  is  one  of  the  few  heroes  of  history  whose  patriotic 
efforts  gleam  brightly  through  the  gloom  of  a  falling 
cause.  His  bravery  and  intelligence  were  shown  in  his 
successful  wars  against  the  Livonians,  Swedes,  and  Finns, 
but  when  this  countless  swarm  of  barbarians  appeared,  he 
saw  that  resistance  was  ruin  and  he  advised  submission. 
The  whole  of  Russia  bowed  under  the  Mongol  yoke. 

The  Tartars  did  not  introduce  any  fundamental  political 
changes.  They  collected  the  tribute  of  a  tenth,  and  the 
Russian  princes  were  forced  to  visit  the  Horde  in  token  of 
submission.  The  Tartars  built  the  city  of  Sarai  on  the 
lower  Volga.  Thither  the  princes  went,  and  the  lieuten- 


The  History  of  Russia.  71 

ant  of  the  Khan  judged  their  disputes.  Often  they  were 
required  to  repair  to  the  tents  of  the  Great  Khan  himself, 
at  the  Eastern  extremity  of  Asia,  across  pitiless  des- 
erts, where  their  nobles  and  they  themselves  perished 
from  thirst,  and  their  dry  bones  whitened  the  steppes. 
The  Russians  were  compelled  to  furnish  troops  who  served 
the  Khan  in  his  wars  and  who  shared  with  his  own  sol- 
diers the  booty  of  his  conquests.  No  prince  could  ascend 
the  throne  or  make  war  without  the  authority  of  the  Khan. 
There  were  inter-marriages  between  the  Tartars  and  the 
princes  and  nobles  of  Russia,  but  this  amalgamation  did 
not  extend  to  the  lower  strata  of  society.  The  peasants, 
who  preserved  their  purer  blood  and  faith,  became  distinct- 
ively known  as  Krestianin  or  Christians.  Gradually  the 
Tartars  became  more  civilized.  A  sort  of  rude  chivalry 
began  to  prevail  among  them,  while  the  Russians,  de- 
based by  their  thraldom,  vied  with  each  other  at  the 
court  of  the  Khan  in  servility  and  intrigue.  Each  prince 
sought  to  excite  the  Tartars  against  his  brothers,  in  order 
to  acquire  their  possessions.  Their  sycophancy  reached 
the  lowest  depths.  Gradually  the  principalities  of  Eastern 
Russia  grouped  themselves  around  Moscow.  A  race  of 
princes,  stern,  crafty  and  pitiless,  servile  to  the  Khan, 
arrogant  to  their  subjects,  assumed  the  title  of  Grand 
Princes  of  Moscow,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  present 
autocracy.  They  became  collectors  of  the  Khan's  tribute. 
The  Tartar  knew  no  pity  in  his  exactions  and  they  knew 
none.  They  ruled  with  merciless  severity.  The  great 
historian  of  Russia,  Karamsin,  says :  "  The  princes  of 
Moscow  took  the  humble  title  of  servants  of  the  Khans, 


72  Slav  or  Saxon. 

and  it  was  by  this  means  that  they  became  powerful 
monarchs."  Rambaud  says  :  "  It  was  the  crushing  weight 
of  Tartar  domination  that  stifled  the  germs  of  political 
liberty."  The  Eastern  type  of  government  has  always 
been  the  absolute  type,  and  both  from  Asia  and  from 
Byzantium  came  the  infusion  of  absolutism  into  the  gov- 
ernment of  Russia.  The  Mongol  yoke  did  not  interfere 
with  the  growth  of  the  Greek  church.  This  church  has 
been  the  constant  ally  of  despotism.  It  planted  autocratic 
ideas  into  Russia  at  an  early  day.  The  arbitrary  codes  of 
the  Greek  emperors,  Basil  and  Justinian,  introduced  with 
the  new  faith,  were  established  side  by  side  with  the  free 
code  of  laroslaf,  and  the  liberty-loving  Slavs  became 
accustomed  to  ideas  of  autocracy,  imprisonment,  forced 
labor,  flogging,  torture,  and  the  death  penalty.  The 
Tartars  indeed  granted  special  favors  to  the  Greek  church 
and  exempted  its  priests  from  taxation.  Convents  multi- 
plied, superstition  increased,  while  scholars  and  learning 
disappeared. 

One  cannot  read  without  sickening,  the  stories  of  the 
murders,  the  tortures,  the  massacres,  the  intrigues,  the 
slavish  subserviency,  and  the  cowardly  assassinations 
that  mark  the  growth  of  the  Grand  Principality  of  Mos- 
cow. Women  and  children  are  impaled  alive,  men  are 
burned  in  iron  cages,  excrutiating  tortures  are  prescribed 
by  law,  mutilation  of  face  and  limb  are  the  most  ordinary 
kinds  of  punishment.  Neither  ties  of  friendship  nor  of 
kinship  are  any  protection.  The  murder  of  Mikhail  by 
luri  is  avenged  before  the  eyes  of  the  Khan  himself  by 
the  son  of  the  murdered  man,  Dmitri  of  the  Terrible 


The  History  of  Russia.  73 

Eyes.  It  was  in  the  blood  of  many  martyrs  that  the  Holy 
Empire  of  Russia  came  to  its  growth.  Great  strides  are 
made  toward  consolidation  of  power.  When  a  prince 
dies,  his  property  is  no  longer  divided  among  his  sons 
or  brothers,  but  the  paramount  authority  is  given  to 
one  alone.  Gradually  the  power  of  the  Tartars  becomes 
weakened  by  wars  among  themselves,  while  Russia  grows 
stronger  by  the  union  of  all  authority  in  the  hands  of  a 
single  prince.  Finally  the  Russians  attempt  to  throw  off 
the  yoke  of  the  Khan.  Their  prince  defeats  the  Tartars 
in  a  great  battle.  Then  Tamerlane,  the  conqueror  of 
India,  becomes  Khan,  the  tide  of  victory  ebbs,  and  Moscow 
is  sacked  by  his  lieutenant.  But  the  Muscovites  soon  re- 
cover from  the  disaster.  The  principality  grows  in  power, 
and  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow  becomes  the  ruler  of 
Novgorod  also.  Tartar  suzerainty  is  again  established, 
and  the  Russian  princes  rival  each  other  in  baseness.  The 
Khan  confirms  the  right  of  a  usurper  against  the  lawful 
prince,  because,  bowed  in  the  dust,  he  claimed  "  no  other 
title  to  the  principality  but  the  will  of  the  Khan  himself." 

At  this  time  Byzantium  fell  before  the  conquering  Turks ; 
there  was  no  longer  a  great  Czar  in  the  East.  The  Princes 
of  Moscow  were  soon  to  shake  off  the  Tartar  yoke,  and 
to  assume  the  title. 

The  re-conquest  of  Russia  from  the  nomads  of  the 
South  had  begun.  The  Tartars  of  the  steppe  conquered, 
but  could  not  assimilate  the  Russians  of  the  forest.  A 
temporary  suzerainty  was  all  that  they  could  maintain 
over  a  people  whose  agricultural  pursuits  and  modes  of 
life  were  so  different  from  their  own.  The  re-conquest 


74  Slav  or  Saxon. 

was  a  task  more  thoroughly  done.  The  Russian,  in  his 
turn,  overcame  and  then  assimilated.  He  threw  off  the 
yoke  of  the  khans,  and  then,  emerging  from  his  forests 
of  the  North,  to  which  he  had  been  driven,  he  not  only 
regained  the  ground  he  had  lost,  but  spread  the  network 
of  permanent  colonization  far  to  the  South  and  East  of  his 
former  boundaries,  absorbing  into  the  mass  of  the  Russian 
people  whatever  of  the  Tartar  element  remained. 

The  Tartar  population  in  a  few  cities,  such  as  Kazan 
and  Astrakhan,  with  small  and  scattered  Tartar  com- 
munities, distributed  here  and  there  like  little  islets  in  the 
great  ocean  of  Russian  civilization,  are  the  only  inde- 
pendent relics  which  to-day  remain  to  attest  the  suprem- 
acy of  these  wild  nomads  five  centuries  ago.  The  infusion 
of  Tartar  blood  into  that  of  the  Russian  people  has  not 
been  great,  but  the  Tartar  domination  has  left  a  lasting 
impress  upon  Russian  character.  It  is  to  them  that  we 
must  ultimately  trace  the  habits  of  servitude  and  baseness, 
the  notions  of  autocracy,  the  necessity  for  serfdom,  with 
its  attendant  train  of  defects,  the  craft,  the  dishonesty,  and 
dissimulation,  which  have  left  their  mark  upon  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Russian  people. 

The  consolidation  of  national  power  is  generally  accom- 
plished under  the  leadership  of  some  great  man ;  that  of 
Russia  was  brought  about  through  the  able  and  crafty 
policy  of  Ivan  the  Great.  His  reign  took  place  during 
an  age  when,  throughout  all  Europe,  the  disintegrated 
forces  of  feudalism  were  supplanted  by  the  concentrated 
power  of  monarchy.  It  was  the  time  when  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  had  consolidated  under  a  single  throne  the 


The  History  of  Russia.  75 

petty  governments  of  Spain.  It  was  the  period  when  the 
Tudors  of  England  had  put  an  end  to  the  interminable 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  and  had  asserted  an  authority  para- 
mount to  that  of  the  nobles  or  the  parliament  of  the 
people.  It  was  the  age  when  Louis  XL,  by  his  genius 
and  merciless  craft,  had  stamped  out  the  power  of  feudal- 
ism and  given  to  France  a  strong  but  absolute  govern- 
ment. Ivan  the  Great  closely  resembled  the  latter 
monarch.  He  was  the  most  devout  of  sovereigns  ;  his 
hypocrisy  knew  no  bounds.  While  he  cut  off  the  noses 
and  lips  of  his  prisoners,  while  he  mutilated  by  horrible 
tortures  the  highest  of  his  nobility,  while  he  assassinated 
his  own  kindred  for  the  purpose  of  appropriating  the 
principalities  which  belonged  to  them,  he  kept  with  the 
utmost  punctiliousness  all  the  observances  of  the  Church, 
and  prayed  and  wept  with  unction  for  his  victims.  He 
stirred  up  dissensions  in  Novgorod  which  led  to  its  final 
subjection.  The  vetchc  was  wholly  overthrown,  and  the 
great  bell  which  called  the  people  together  was  taken 
away.  In  his  wars  with  Lithuania,  Western  Russia, 
which  had  melted  away  before  the  time  of  the  Tartars, 
was  partly  reconquered.  Ivan  married  Sophia  Paleologus, 
the  last  descendant  of  the  Greek  emperors.  Greek  immi- 
grants flocked  to  Moscow,  bringing  with  them  Greek  let- 
ters, Greek  arts,  and  Greek  subserviency  to  despotism. 
Ivan  was  a  law-maker,  too,  and  the  code  of  the  Ulogenia 
increasing  corporal  punishment,  the  death  penalty,  and 
torture,  was  established  during  his  reign. 

It  was  said  that  this  great  tyrant  was  personally  a  coward ; 
that  his  victories  were  won  by  his  generals  while  he  re- 


76  Slav  or  Saxon. 

mained  immured  in  his  palace.  The  Tartars,  torn  with 
internal  dissensions,  troubled  him  but  little.  Under  his 
reign  their  yoke  was  shaken  off,  but  the  Tartar  domina- 
tion was  no  more  grinding  than  the  despotism  which  he 
established.  "  To  a  Russian  who  said  that  autocracy  had 
lifted  Russia,  when  crushed  by  the  Tartars,  a  foreigner 
answered  that  it  had  been  lifted  only  upon  its  knees." 
By  the  Muscovite  forms  of  servility  the  proudest  boyars 
declared  themselves  slaves  of  the  Czar.  The  most  debasing 
ceremonial  descending  from  class  to  class,  down  to  the 
lowest,  was  ennobled  by  the  commands  of  religion.  And 
yet,  without  the  tyranny  established  by  the  Grand  Princes 
of  Moscow,  Russia  would  never  have  been  the  great  em- 
pire it  is.  In  this  period,  which  Solovief  calls  the  pro- 
longation of  the  liquid  state,  no  other  form  of  govern- 
mental organism  could  have  created  a  stable  empire  upon 
these  boundless  plains.  Solovief  says  that  "  the  excessive 
energy  of  the  government  was  a  natural  consequence  of 
the  weakness  and  incomplete  development  of  the  social 
body." 

Vasili,  grandson  of  Ivan  the  Great,  suppressed  the  liber- 
ties of  the  last  of  the  free  cities,  Pskov,  whose  weeping 
citizens  were  deprived  of  their  vetcJie  and  their  bell. 
The  nobles  of  the  city  were  banished,  and  their  places 
were  filled  by  three  hundred  Muscovite  families  sent  to 
Pskov  for  that  purpose.  The  annalist  cries  :  "  An  eagle, 
a  many-winged  eagle,  with  claws  like  a  lion,  has  swept 
down  upon  me  ;  he  has  taken  captive  the  three  cedars  of 
Lebanon,  my  beauty,  my  riches,  my  children.  Our  land 
is  a  desert,  our  city  ruined,  our  commerce  destroyed. 


The  History  of  Russia.  77 

My  brothers  have  been  carried  away  to  a  place  where  our 
fathers  never  dwelt." 

All  the  appanages,  or  portions  carved  out  for  younger 
sons  by  the  princes,  were  now  destroyed,  all  power  was 
united  in  one  prince.  The  prince's  jester  rode  through 
the  streets  of  Moscow  with  a  broom,  crying  out  that  it 
was  time  to  clean  the  empire  of  what  remained  of  this 
rubbish. 

Then  came  Ivan  the  Terrible.  In  his  time,  the  strug- 
gle was  not  against  the  neighboring  princes,  but  against 
the  oligarchy  of  the  boyars.  During  his  childhood,  this 
ambitious  nobility  had  poisoned  Helena,  the  Regent, 
imprisoned  the  nurse  of  Ivan,  and  assumed  control.  Ivan 
was  a  boy  who  said  little  but  thought  a  great  deal.  At 
last  he  summoned  his  boyars  and  reproached  them  for 
their  evil  government.  "There  were  among  them,"  he 
said,  "many  guilty  ones,  but  this  time  he  would  content 
himself  with  making  one  example."  He  ordered  his 
guards  to  seize  Shuiski,  the  chief  of  the  nobles,  and  then 
and  there  had  him  torn  to  pieces  by  hounds.  Others 
were  banished.  The  prince  who  did  this  was  thirteen 
years  of  age.  A  period  of  internal  peace  and  external 
conquest  follows.  First  Kazan,  then  Astrakhan,  strong- 
holds of  the  Tartars  on  the  Volga,  fall  before  him.  Later 
the  intrigues  of  the  nobles  are  renewed.  Ivan  falls  dan- 
gerously ill,  the  boyars  refuse  allegiance  to  his  son,  and  a 
mutiny  breaks  out  in  the  palace.  He  knows  the  fate  in  store 
for  his  wife  and  children  if  he  should  die,  but  he  recovers. 
His  wife  is  poisoned ;  Kurbski,  one  of  the  most  trusted 
of  his  nobles,  deserts  to  the  king  of  Poland  ;  other  plots 


/8  Slav  or  Saxon. 

are  discovered.  All  the  passions  of  his  malignant  nature 
become  aroused.  Then  follow  the  seven  periods  of  mas- 
sacre ;  a  reign  of  terror  hangs  over  the  nobles.  Ivan 
writes  to  the  monastery  of  St.  Cyril,  asking  the  prayers  of 
the  Church  for  his  victims.  The  list  shows  thirty-five 
hundred ;  many  of  the  names  are  followed  by  the  gloomy 
addition,  "  with  his  wife  and  children,"  "  with  his  sons," 
"  with  ten  men  who  came  to  his  help."  Ivan  slew  his 
own  child  in  an  altercation.  When  the  spirit  of  liberty 
revived  in  Novgorod,  the  revolt  of  that  great  city  was 
punished  by  the  physical  extermination  of  its  inhabit- 
ants. For  five  weeks  the  work  of  slaughter  went  on 
within  its  walls,  and  sixty  thousand  is  the  tale  of  men 
butchered  by  his  merciless  soldiery.  Yet  Russia  grew 
in  power  under  his  government.  In  his  reign,  an  army 
which  was  sent  across  the  Urals  under  a  brigand  chief, 
conquered  Siberia,  "  the  great  realm  that  slopes  to  the 
Arctic,  that  sluggish  mere  and  motionless,  where  you 
hear  the  sound  of  the  sun  rising."  Although  Ivan  was 
willing  to  use  the  Church  as  an  instrument  of  his  despot- 
ism, he  was  statesman  enough  to  perceive  that  there  was 
a  menace  in  the  great  power  of  the  monasteries,  so  he  for- 
bade them  to  acquire  new  lands.  His  latter  years  were 
clouded  by  military  disasters  in  the  West,  and  by  the  fail- 
ure of  his  intrigues  for  the  Polish  crown. 

Such  was  the  fear  of  assassination  at  this  time,  that  it 
was  the  custom  for  the  relatives  of  the  Czar's  wife,  and 
not  his  own,  to  take  control  of  the  affairs  of  state. 
Since  they  would  be  the  greatest  losers  by  his  death,  their 
efforts  were  directed  towards  the  perpetuation  of  his  life 


The  History  of  Russia.  79 

and  power.  The  penal  code  was  savage.  The  insolvent 
debtor  was  tied  up  half-naked  in  a  public  place,  beaten 
three  hours  a  day  for  forty  days,  and  then  sold  into  slav- 
ery. Men  were  broken  on  the  wheel,  impaled,  drowned 
under  the  ice,  knouted  to  death,  buried  alive  up  to  the 
neck,  torn  to  pieces  by  iron  hooks.  The  noble  killed  his 
slave  and  suffered  no  penalty.  Foreigners  were  secluded 
and  rigidly  watched.  Even  ambassadors  were  not  allowed 
to  hold  converse  with  the  people,  lest  Russian  manners 
should  be  contaminated  by  the  outside  world.  No  citi- 
zen could  quit  the  town  in  which  he  lived.  The  very 
peasants  hid  their  property  to  escape  taxation.  Women 
dwelt  in  Oriental  seclusion ;  they  were  always  minors  in 
the  eye  of  the  law.  They  might  be  beaten  by  their  hus- 
bands at  will.  Cards  and  dancing  were  forbidden,  but 
drunkenness  was  universal.  Bear-fights  and  the  jests  of 
buffoons  were  the  diversions  of  the  people.  Medical 
science  was  unknown  ;  medicine  and  sorcery  were  synony- 
mous. If  the  doctor  did  not  cure,  he  was  punished  as  a  ma- 
gician. Society  sank  to  the  lowest  depths  to  which  thral- 
dom can  degrade  it.  Yet  Ivan  himself  was  not  wholly  a 
barbarian.  He  was  a  man  of  no  mean  literary  ability.  He 
encouraged  printing  and  letters,  but  among  such  a  people 
these  could  make  little  headway. 

The  successor  of  Ivan,  his  son  Feodor,  was  utterly  un- 
like his  father.  He  was  a  good  man,  but  a  vacillating 
and  imbecile  ruler,  and  the  power  passed  to  Boris  Go- 
dunof,  a  powerful  noble,  who  ruled  with  vigor  in  the 
Czar's  name.  Boris  prohibited  the  serfs  from  changing 
their  masters,  and  thus  bound  them  to  the  soil.  He  insti- 


8o  Slav  or  Saxon. 

tuted  the  patriarchate,  in  order  to  have  a  strong  ecclesi- 
astical support  for  his  own  claims  to  the  throne  when  Feo- 
dqr  should  die.  Dmitri,  another  son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible 
and  heir  to  the  throne,  is  slain,  presumably  by  the  secret 
order  of  Boris,  though  others  were  punished  for  it.  Feodor 
dies  ;  the  dynasty  is  now  extinct.  The  patriarch  supports 
the  claims  of  Boris  to  the  throne,  and  a  sort  of  States- 
General  is  convened,  which  elects  him.  Suddenly  a  man 
appears  claiming  to  be  the  murdered  Dmitri.  He  invades 
Russia  at  the  head  of  a  little  army  of  Poles  and  Cossacks. 
After  several  battles  fought  with  varying  success,  the 
nobles,  weary  of  the  tyranny  of  Boris,  desert  to  the 
standard  of  the  usurper.  Boris  dies,  and  Dmitri  enters 
Moscow  and  assumes  the  government.  The  widow  of 
Ivan  the  Terrible  recognizes  the  usurper  as  her  son,  and 
during  his  short  reign  of  less  than  a  year  he  displays  many 
high  qualities.  But,  upon  his  marriage  with  a  Polish 
princess,  a  Catholic,  the  religious  and  national  prejudices 
of  the  Russians  are  aroused  and  he  falls  a  victim  to  a 
conspiracy  among  the  nobles,  headed  by  Vasili  Shuiski, 
who  succeeds  to  the  throne  upon  his  death.  Then  an- 
other Dmitri  appears,  a  man  low-born,  brutal,  and  igno- 
rant, and  while  these  two  contend  for  the  sovereignty  of 
the  empire,  Sigismund  of  Poland  enters  Russia  at  the 
head  of  an  army,  and  his  son  Vladislas  becomes  Czar. 
The  wildest  confusion  prevails  between  contending  fac- 
tions, until  another  States-General  settles  the  succession 
upon  Michael  Romanoff,  the  first  of  the  present  reigning 
house.  The  power  of  autocracy  is  now  permanently  es- 
tablished. 


The  History  of  Russia.  81 

Farther  South,  on  the  untilled  steppes,  and  forming  a 
military  barrier  between  Muscovy  and  the  hordes  of  plun- 
dering and  slave-dealing  Turks  and  Crimean  Tartars,  lived 
the  Cossack  tribes  in  a  sort  of  wild  liberty,  begotten  by 
their  nomadic  life.  Some  of  these  dwelt  in  the  Ukraine, 
the  most  fertile  and  beautiful  of  the  plains  of  Russia, 
whose  deep  black  soil  had  not  yet  been  invaded  by  the 
implements  of  systematic  agriculture,  for  a  pastoral 
people  will  never  resort  to  the  hard  life  of  the  farmer 
while  there  is  land  enough  to  support  them  and  their 
flocks  in  comfort  in  their  nomad  state.  These  Cossacks 
formed  little  military  republics,  protecting  themselves  as 
best  they  might  from  the  marauding  Moslems  in  the 
South,  whose  territories  they  often  invaded,  bringing 
back  with  their  plunder  the  wives  of  the  Tartars,  whose 
blood  became  thus  intermingled  with  their  own.  In 
their  social  institutions  the  most  absolute  equality  pre- 
vailed. In  their  often-recurring  elections  the  humblest 
might  become  chief  of  the  tribe  or  the  nation.  "  Be  still 
Cossack,  thou  mayest  sometime  be  hetrnan,"  was  the 
answer  to  many  a  complaint.  The  Cossacks  of  the  Ukraine 
had  hitherto  preserved  this  freedom  under  Polish  suzer- 
ainty; a  half-barbarous  tribe  farther  South,  the  Zapo- 
roshtsui,  enjoyed  still  greater  liberty,  but  under  Alexis, 
the  successor  of  Michael,  they  both  became  subject  to  the 
Czar,  who  granted  them,  for  a  while,  a  sort  of  semi- 
independence.  But  the  Czar's  power  is  too  strong;  the 
Cossacks  resist  ;  they  are  overthrown,  and  their  liberty  is 
taken  away. 

We  have  thus  followed  the  gradual  withdrawal  of  free- 


82  Slav  or  Saxon. 

dom  from  the  communities  of  the  early  Slavs,  until  we  find 
the  race  subject  to  the  sternest  and  most  relentless  despot- 
ism on  earth. 

Autocracy,  now  firmly  established,  is  following  the  path 
which  despotism  is  almost  sure  to  take  at  one  time  or  an- 
other. Russia  is  becoming  fossilized.  The  influence  of  the 
Church,  which  had  done  so  much  to  consolidate  the  power 
of  the  Czar,  is  opposed  to  all  innovation.  The  minutest 
habits  of  social  life  are  regulated  by  the  joint  authority  of 
a  Church  and  a  State  which  regards  every  breach  of  its  com- 
mands as  a  matter  both  of  sacrilege  and  treason.  Sunk  in 
semi-barbarism,  isolated  from  the  rest  of  Europe,  the  Rus- 
sians refuse  all  instruction,  oppose  all  civilization,  and  be- 
lieve their  way  the  only  true  way,  their  ideals  the  only 
true  ideals.  He  who  proposes  an  innovation  is  not  only 
a  traitor  to  the  Czar,  but  a  rebel  to  the  commands  of  the 
Most  High. 

Suddenly  there  sprang  upon  the  scene  of  action  a 
colossal  figure — one  of  the  few  men  able  to  break  the 
thraldom  which  custom  and  superstition  impose,  to 
overcome  the  prejudices  of  his  time,  to  gather  for  himself 
the  stores  of  modern  civilization,  and  to  scatter  them 
among  his  people.  It  was  an  extraordinary  circumstance 
that  such  a  man,  by  the  accident  of  birth,  held  in  his  sin- 
gle hand  the  destiny  of  the  whole  Russian  State.  With- 
out him,  the  reforms  with  which  he  filled  a  lifetime  would 
have  required  centuries  for  their  accomplishment.  He 
was  one  of  the  few  great  men  of  history  to  whom  the 
power  was  given  to  turn  with  his  single  arm  the  whole 
current  of  a  nation's  life.  He  tore  Russia  by  main  force 


The  History  of  Russia.  83 

from  her  ancient  moorings,  and  sent  her  forward  upon 
the  swift  stream  of  modern  civilization.  Peter  the  Great 
was  born  a  barbarian ;  he  passed  much  of  his  turbu- 
lent youth  upon  the  streets  of  Moscow,  associating  with 
everybody,  acquiring  knowledge  from  every  source.  To 
his  last  day  he  preserved  the  eager  curiosity  of  childhood, 
an  unquenchable  thirst  for  information,  violent  passions, 
but  an  earnest  purpose,  never  to  be  shaken,  of  making 
Russia  a  great  state  and  the  Russian  people  a  great  and 
civilized  people.  Throwing  aside  all  pomp  and  pageantry, 
he  went  everywhere  incognito.  He  was  disguised  as  a 
subordinate  in  the  embassy  which  he  sent  to  visit  the 
nations  of  Europe.  He  learned  navigation  from  a  skipper 
on  the  White  Sea,  and  ship-building  in  the  garb  of  a  work- 
man at  Saardam  and  Amsterdam.  Russia  should  know 
these  things;  nobody  else  could  teach  her,  so  he  must 
learn  himself.  Yet  he  was  as  great  an  autocrat  as  any  of 
his  predecessors.  He  crushed  out  liberty  as  .relentlessly 
as  Ivan  the  Great. 

His  great  aim  was  to  make  Russia  one  of  the  great  civi- 
lized states  of  Europe.  To  do  this,  the  country  must  have 
an  outlet  on  the  sea.  It  must  have  some  commerce  with 
the  outside  world,  he  must  own  the  Baltic  provinces,  and 
to  get  these  he  must  fight  with  Sweden.  But  the  Swedes 
are  civilized,  they  know  the  modern  methods  of  warfare, 
the  Russians  do  not.  In  the  first  encounter,  the  Russians 
are  shamefully  defeated,  but  they  can  wait.  Peter  must 
learn  from  his  enemies.  At  last  he  is  able  to  beat  them 
when  fighting  two  to  one.  This  is  a  great  gain.  Charles 
XII.  of  Sweden,  is  a  man  who  would  play  the  role  of 


84  Slav  or  Saxon. 

Alexander,  but  Peter  says,  "  he  will  find  me  no  Darius." 
Charles  invades  Russia,  Peter  offers  terms,  but  the  Swedish 
king  will  treat  only  at  Moscow.  The  Russians  retire  be 
fore  him  and  draw  him  into  the  midst  of  their  forests  and 
plains  in  the  depths  of  a  Russian  winter.  Hunger  and 
cold  destroy  half  the  army  of  Sweden  before  it  encoun- 
ters the  Russians.  Then  comes  Poltava,  and  the  army  of 
Charles  is  annihilated.  The  star  of  Sweden  wanes,  and 
Russia,  with  its  larger  resources  and  greater  power  of  ex- 
pansion, takes  the  rank  which  its  rival  held.  So  Peter  ac- 
quires his  outlet  on  the  Baltic. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  imagine  the  difficulties  which 
the  Czar  had  to  overcome  in  forcing  his  reforms  upon 
Russia.  His  efforts  to  make  the  nobles  shave  their  beards 
provoked  more  animosity  than  all  the  massacres  of  Ivan 
the  Terrible.  The  old  Russian  proverb  is  "  Novelty  brings 
calamity  "  ;  reform  had  to  be  enforced  by  the  knout,  by 
banishment,  by  death  itself.  He  pushed  his  reforms  in- 
discriminately in  every  direction.  In  all  things  except 
its  absolute  form  of  government,  Russia  must  become 
like  its  neighbors. 

The  Church  had  accomplished  what  it  could  in  welding 
the  despotism,  it  now  stood  in  the  way  of  reform.  It  was 
conservative  of  old  customs,  hence  he  limited  its  authority. 
The  patriarchate  was  abolished.  Peter's  despotism  was 
to  be  military,  not  monastic,  his  autocracy  was  of  the  kind 
that  crushed  equally  the  boyar  and  the  priest.  Every 
noble  was  required  to  serve  the  State  for  life.  To  enable 
him  to  perform  this  duty,  his  power  over  his  serfs  must 
be  maintained  and  increased.  Russia  was  to  be  a  State 


The  History  of  Russia.  8  5 

centralized  and  civilized  like  the  France  of  Louis  the 
Fourteenth,  yet  the  patriarchal  and  Asiatic  principle 
which  presided  over  the  relations  of  the  father  with  his 
children,  of  the  Czar  with  his  subjects,  of  the  proprietor 
with  his  serfs,  was  to  remain  unimpaired.  On  the  basis 
of  a  social  organization  which  seemed  to  date  from  the 
eleventh  century  were  to  be  constructed  a  system  of 
diplomacy,  a  regular  army,  a  complete  order  of  adminis- 
trative officers,  together  with  schools  and  academies,  and 
the  trade  and  manufactures  of  a  luxurious  civilization. 

The  reforms  which  Peter  introduced  have  lasted  down 
to  the  present  time,  in  spite  of  the  repugnance  of  the 
people,  and  the  imbecility  and  vices  of  many  of  his 
successors.  But  the  rough  haste  with  which  he  forced 
them  upon  Russia  did  great  harm.  He  took  no  note  of 
moral  laws  ;  he  weakened  the  conscience  of  his  people  by 
violating  it.  By  copying  every  thing  from  other  sources, 
he  gave  no  play  to  Russian  originality.  Had  he  paid 
some  heed  to  the  law  of  natural  selection,  his  reforms 
might  indeed  have  come  slower,  but  he  would  have  planted 
in  Russia  only  such  things  as  were  capable  of  growth  on 
Russian  soil.  As  it  was,  he  brought  into  Russia  institu- 
tions which  were  not  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  which,  like  borrowed  garments,  would  not  fit. 
So  long  as  serfdom,  with  its  primitive  and  patriarchal 
customs,  continued  to  exist,  civilized  institutions,  affect- 
ing only  the  upper  strata  of  Russian  society,  were  gro- 
tesquely inharmonious.  This  dualism  of  Russian  civiliza- 
tion is  to-day  repeated  in  Russian  character.  The  most 
opposite  extremes  are  found  together. 


86  Slav  or  Saxon. 

To  a  large  extent,  the  old  nobility  was  supplanted  by 
the  so-called  nobility  of  merit,  the  nobility  of  office- 
holders, the  various  gradations  of  the  Tchin,  established 
by  Peter,  where  appointments  and  promotion  depended 
upon  service  to  the  State.  Peter  decreed  that  land  should 
go  to  the  oldest  by  birth.  The  seclusion  of  women 
was  abolished,  for  this  was  opposed  to  the  civilization  of 
Europe,  and  was  not  necessary  to  the  support  of  his 
power.  Women  were  no  longer  compelled  to  marry 
against  their  will.  The  corruptions  of  office-holders  had 
been  frightful.  Men  solicited  offices  of  the  Czar  that  they 
"might  feed  themselves  "  by  plundering  the  people  ;  these 
things  were  mercilessly  punished.  A  State  Inquisition 
was  established  for  "  crimes  against  the  majesty  of  the 
Czar."  Peter's  method  of  enforcing  his  reforms  strikes  us 
with  wonder  at  its  barbarous  simplicity.  All  towns  must 
send  shoemakers  to  learn  the  trade  at  Moscow ;  beards 
were  taxed  ;  no  Russian  must  become  a  monk  until  thirty 
years  of  age,  lest  population  be  diminished.  He  deter- 
mined to  establish  a  new  capital  by  the  sea ;  he  would  tear 
the  Russians  away  from  their  old  associations  around 
Moscow.  St.  Petersburg  was  built  by  edicts  ;  he  decreed 
that  there  should  be  no  stone  house  erected  except  at  the 
new  capital ;  all  stone-masons  flocked  thither  at  once. 
Every  owner  of  five  hundred  peasants  must  build  a  house 
in  that  city.  The  capital  of  Russia  remains  a  durable 
monument  to  his  energy.  His  motto  contained  the 
secret,  not  only  of  his  own  greatness,  but  of  the  continued 
greatness  of  the  Russian  State,  "  Vires  acquirit  eundo" 
The  continued  movement  of  Russian  society  has  pre- 


The  History  of  Russia.  87 

served  it  from  the  crystallization  into  which  it  was  falling 
when  he  took  the  helm. 

Peter  the  Great  was,  perhaps,  more  than  any  other 
sovereign  in  history,  a  type  of  the  people  whom  he  ruled. 
In  the  words  of  Leroy-Beaulieu  : 

This  union,  in  a  single  person,  of  so  many  qualities  and 
defects,  of  so  many  traits  scattered  through  a  nation,  formed 
a  man,  wild,  strange,  almost  a  monster,  but  at  the  same  time 
one  of  the  most  vigorous  and  enterprising  men,  one  of  the  best 
endowed  for  life  and  action  which  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
Few  nations  have  the  good-fortune  of  thus  having  a  great  man, 
in  whom  they  can  themselves  be  personified,  who,  even  in  his 
vices,  seems  a  colossal  incarnation  of  their  genius.  Peter,  the 
pupil  and  imitator  of  foreigners  ;  Peter,  who  seemed  to  have 
made  it  his  mission  to  do  violence  to  the  nature  of  his  people, 
and  who  was  looked  upon  by  the  old  Muscovites  as  a  sort  of 
Anti-Christ,  is  the  type  of  the  Russian,  the  Great-Russian  in 
particular.  With  him  it  can  be  said  that  the  sovereign  and 
the  nation  explain  each  other.  A  people  who  are  like  such  a 
man  are  sure  of  a  great  future  ;  if  they  seem  to  lack  some  of 
the  highest  and  finest  qualities  which  adorn  humanity,  they 
possess  those  which  confer  power  and  political  greatness. 

Under  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of  Peter, 
while  religious  persecution  increased,  the  death  penalty 
was  abolished,  but  a  hundred  blows  of  the  knout  (which 
the  victim  rarely  survived)  followed  by  lifelong  exile  to 
Siberia,  with  nose  and  ears  cut  off,  was  an  indifferent 
substitute.  Eighty  thousand  prisoners  were  knouted  and 
banished  during  her  reign. 


88  Slav  or  Saxon. 

Foremost  among  the  successors  of  Peter  was  Catharine 
the  Second.  Her  skilful  intrigues  in  Poland,  her  defeat 
of  the  Turks,  her  conquests  in  the  South,  and  the  exten- 
sion of  the  territory  of  Russia  in  every  direction  under 
her  administration,  present  a  brilliant  chapter  in  Russian 
history.  But  it  is  with  her  internal  policy  that  we  are 
most  concerned.  At  the  beginning  of  her  reign  her  ideas 
were  extremely  liberal ;  she  established  a  commission  to 
compile  a  new  code,  and  gave  to  the  commissioners  in- 
structions as  to  the  principles  which  should  govern  them, 
taken  from  the  brightest  pages  of  the  philosophy  of  the 
1 8th  century.  It  contained  such  maxims  as  the  follow- 
ing :  "  The  nation  is  not  made  for  the  sovereign,  'but  the 
sovereign  for  the  nation."  "  Equality  consists  in  the 
obedience  of  the  citizen  to  the  law  alone  ;  liberty  is  the 
right  to  do  every  thing  that  is  not  forbidden  by  law."  "  It 
is  better  to  spare  ten  guilty  men  than  to  put  one  innocent 
man  to  death."  "  Torture  is  an  admirable  means  for  con- 
victing an  innocent  but  weakly  man,  and  for  saving  a 
stout  fellow  even  when  he  is  guilty." 

She  talked  of  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs ;  she  estab- 
lished a  society  which  proposed  the  question  of  emanci- 
pation as  a  subject  for  prize  competition.  An  article  fa- 
voring it  won  the  prize.  But  Catharine  did  nothing  more. 
Indeed,  she  finally  aggravated  serfdom  by  dividing  many 
of  her  own  serfs  among  the  nobles.  She  forbade  peasants 
to  complain  of  their  masters.  A  master  might  send  his 
serf  to  Siberia  at  will.  She  allowed  no  courts  for  deter- 
mining the  rights  of  serfs  belonging  to  nobles.  She  fol- 
lowed the  policy  of  Peter  in  limiting  the  power  of  the 


The  History  of  Russia.  89 

Church  ;  she  protected  religious  refugees  from  other  coun- 
tries ;  she  appropriated  a  vast  part  of  the  domains  of  the 
monasteries ;  she  granted  religious  toleration.  It  would 
appear  from  her  correspondence  with  Voltaire  that  she 
was  personally  a  skeptic.  She  introduced  a  number  of 
superficial  reforms  among  the  upper  classes ;  she  took 
measures  for  the  instruction  of  women,  encouraged  edu- 
cation, and  established  a  hospital  for  foundlings  at  Mos- 
cow ;  but  her  reforms  went  no  deeper  than  the  upper 
classes  of  Russian  social  life  ;  the  serfs  were  more  abased 
than  ever.  When  the  French  Revolution  shook  the 
thrones  of  Europe,  a  great  change  took  place  in  Catharine's 
ideas.  She  had  the  bust  of  her  old  friend,  Voltaire,  re- 
moved to  the  rubbish-room.  Russians  suspected  of  lib- 
eral ideas  were  closely  watched  ;  the  author  of  a  book  on 
serfdom,  containing  views  similar  to  those  which  she  had 
held  herself,  was  sent  to  Siberia.  Several  public  journals 
were  suppressed ;  she  broke  off  all  communication  with 
France,  forbade  the  tricolor  to  enter  Russian  ports,  and 
expelled  French  subjects  who  would  not  swear  fidelity  to 
monarchy.  Despotism  received  new  strength  at  the 
hands  of  this  brilliant  but  unprincipled  woman. 

Her  son  Paul,  brought  up  by  Catharine  in  seclusion  from 
motives  of  jealousy,  was  a  tyrant  by  nature.  Under  his 
reign  the  censorship  of  the  press  became  more  rigorous. 
Foreign  travel  was  forbidden. 

Paul  was  succeeded  by  Alexander,  whose  international 
policy,  disastrous  at  first,  ended  in  the  overthrow  of  Na- 
poleon, and  made  him  the  chief  among  the  allied  mon- 
archs  of  Europe.  An  advent  of  liberalism  came  in  with 


go  S/av  or  Saxon. 

his  reign,  the  censorship  was  mitigated,  and  travel  encour- 
aged. Even  a  constitution  was  talked  of  ;  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  serfs  was  projected  ;  contracts  of  manu- 
mission were  made  valid  ;  dissenters  were  tolerated  ; 
public  education  was  organized.  Under  the  advice  of 
Speranski,  elaborate  schemes  were  prepared  for  the 
reform  of  the  State  ;  but  at  last  those  interested  in 
the  support  of  existing  institutions  became  leagued 
against  him,  and  Speranski  was  overthrown.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  reactionary  Araktcheef.  Then  Alexander's 
own  character  seemed  to  change ;  he  became  more  and 
more  conservative.  The  press  was  again  subjected  to 
the  strictest  censure.  We  find  that  even  the  works  of 
Grotius  on  International  Law,  as  well  as  the  theories  of 
Copernicus,  were  interdicted.  The  Czar  grew  gloomy 
and  suspicious,  and  considered  himself  the  dupe  of  his 
own  sentiments.  The  system  of  military  colonies,  which 
has  since  been  used  with  such  wonderful  effect,  was 
commenced  under  the  reign  of  Alexander.  The  Holy 
Alliance,  which  he  instituted,  became  an  alliance  of  sov- 
ereigns against  liberty. 

The  revolt  which  took  place  when  Nicholas  mounted 
the  throne,  planned  as  it  was  by  a  revolutionary  society 
which  aimed  at  the  destruction  of  the  ruling  house, 
strengthened  him  in  his  autocratic  and  conservative  ten- 
dencies. It  is  characteristic  of  Russian  ignorance  of  all 
notions  of  freedom,  that  when  the  cry  of  "  Long  live  the 
Constitution !  "  was  raised,  the  soldiers  believed  that  the 
word  "  Constitution  "  referred  to  the  wife  of  the  Grand 
Duke,  Constantine,  whom  they  thought  lawfully  entitled 


The  History  of  Russia.  91 

to  the  throne.  Pastel,  the  leading  spirit  of  this  unripe 
movement  for  liberty,  said :  "  I  tried  to  gather  the  har- 
vest without  sowing  the  seed."  Nicholas  was  the  incarna- 
tion of  despotism.  His  tyranny  cut  Russia  off  from  com- 
munication with  Western  Europe.  The  severity  of  the 
censorship  under  his  reign,  the  restrictions  upon  travel  and 
education,  and  the  inquisitorial  methods  of  his  police  can 
hardly  be  believed  by  those  accustomed  to  liberty.  The 
most  stringent  regulations  were  made  concerning  tutors 
and  governesses ;  their  morality,  including  their  political 
opinion,  must  be  certified  to  by  one  of  the  universities. 
It  was  forbidden  to  send  young  men  to  study  in  Western 
colleges,  and  every  obstacle  was  thrown  in  the  way  of  for- 
eign travel  and  residence.  Philosophy  could  not  be  taught 
in  the  universities.  This  branch  of  knowledge  was  put 
under  the  control  of  ignorant  ecclesiastics.  It  is  easy  to 
imagine  how  it  flourished  under  such  care.  The  press 
became  the  instrument  of  reaction.  A  newspaper  which 
advocated  the  ideas  of  Adam  Smith  was  regarded  as  dan- 

o 

gerous,  and  suppressed.  The  daily  journals  themselves 
began  to  wage  war  against  liberty  of  thought  and  all  for- 
eign innovations.  It  is  melancholy  to  contemplate  the 
misfortunes  which  Russia  suffered  under  the  stern  rule  of 
Nicholas.  Listen  to  the  description  of  Turgeneff : 

Looking  about,  you  saw  venality  in  full  feather  ;  serfdom 
crushing  the  people  down  like  a  rock,  barracks  in  every  direc- 
tion ;  there  was  no  justice,  threats  were  made  of  closing  the 
universities,  foreign  travel  was  out  of  the  question,  it  was  im- 
possible to  procure  a  serious  book,  a  gloomy  cloud  hung 
heavily  over  what  was  called  the  administration  of  literature 


92  Slav  or  Saxon. 

and  the  sciences.  Informers  were  lurking  everywhere.  Among 
the  young  there  was  no  common  bond,  no  general  interest. 
Fear  and  flattery  were  universal. 

Lermontoff,  the  ablest  Russian  writer  of  the  period, 
was  banished  three  times  to  the  Caucasus.  The  French 
Revolution  of  1850  excited  the  indignation  of  Nicholas. 
The  Hungarian  uprising  against  Austria  was  sternly  sup- 
pressed by  his  armies.  He  was  everywhere  the  champion 
of  "  the  existing  order." 

In  1815,  under  Alexander  I.,  a  liberal  constitution  had 
been  granted  to  Poland,  but  in  the  latter  years  of  that 
monarch,  a  reactionary  current  set  in.  He  forbade  the 
public  sittings  of  the  Diet,  the  press  was  gagged,  and  the 
police  vexed  and  annoyed  the  people.  During  the  reign 
of  Nicholas  an  insurrection  breaks  out  among  the  Poles, 
to  regain  the  liberties  granted  to  them  by  the  constitution 
of  Alexander.  But  this  constitution  is  incompatible  with 
autocracy.  Polish  patriotism  is  no  match  for  Russian 
bayonets.  Warsaw  is  captured,  "  order  reigns,"  the  old 
constitution  is  obliterated,  there  is  no  Diet,  no  Polish 
army,  every  thing  is  administered  by  Russian  authority. 
The  Polish  language  is  prohibited  in  the  schools,  the  uni- 
versities are  suppressed,  five  thousand  Polish  families  are 
transported  to  the  Caucasus,  property  worth  over  three 
hundred  million  francs  is  confiscated.  In  Lithuania  the 
Roman  Church  is  crushed  and  the  bishops  disciplined 
into  such  servility  that  they  ask  to  be  admitted  to  the 
Russian  Church.  The  nuns  who  reject  this  union  are 
banished  to  the  forests  of  Siberia  and  subjected  to 
unheard-of  tortures. 


The  History  of  Russia.  93 

Then  comes  the  Crimean  War,  brought  about  by  the 
intrigues  of  Nicholas.  Its  issue  was  unsuccessful,  and  the 
people,  who  had  submitted  to  tyranny  without  a  mur- 
mur while  the  prestige  of  Russia  was  unimpaired,  now 
began  to  complain.  The  most  frightful  corruption  pre- 
vailed everywhere.  Anonymous  pamphlets  came  out, 
denouncing  the  tyranny  which  had  brought  on  these  dis- 
asters. Listen  to  the  following  : 

We  have  been  kept  long  enough  in  serfage  by  the  successors 
of  the  Tartar  Khans.  Arise  and  stand  erect  and  calm  before 
the  throne  of  the  despot  ;  demand  of  him  a  reckoning  for  the 
national  misfortunes.  Tell  him  boldly  that  his  throne  is  not 
the  altar  of  God,  and  that  God  has  not  condemned  us  forever 
to  be  his  slaves. 

Russia,  O  Czar !  confided  to  thee  the  supreme  power,  and 
thou  wert  to  her  as  a  God  upon  earth.  And  what  hast  thou 
done  ?  Blinded  by  passion  and  ignorance,  thou  hast  sought 
nothing  but  power  ;  thou  hast  forgotten  Russia.  Thou  hast 
consumed  thy  life  in  reviewing  troops,  in  altering  uniforms,  in 
signing  the  legislative  projects  of  ignorant  charlatans.  Thou 
hast  created  a  despicable  race  of  censors  of  the  press,  that 
thou  mightest  sleep  in  peace  and  never  know  the  wants,  never 
hear  the  murmurs  of  thy  people,  never  listen  to  the  voice  of 
truth.  Truth  !  Thou  hast  buried  her  ;  thou  hast  rolled  a 
great  stone  before  the  door  of  her  sepulchre,  thou  hast  placed 
a  strong  guard  around  her  tomb,  and  in  the  exultation  of 
thine  heart  thou  hast  said,  For  her  there  is  no  resurrection  ! 
Now,  on  the  third  day,  Truth  has  arisen  ;  she  has  come  forth 
from  among  the  dead.  Advance,  O  Czar  !  Appear  at  the 
bar  of  God  and  of  history.  Thou  hast  mercilessly  trodden 
Truth  under  thy  feet  ;  thou  hast  refused  liberty  ;  at  the  same 


94  Slav  or  Saxon. 

time  thou  wast  enslaved  by  thine  own  passions.  By  thy  pride 
and  obstinacy  thou  hast  exhausted  Russia,  thou  hast  armed 
the  world  against  her.  Humiliate  thyself  before  thy  brothers. 
Bow  thy  haughty  forehead  in  the  dust,  implore  pardon,  ask 
counsel.  Throw  thyself  into  the  arms  of  thy  people  ;  there  is 
no  other  way  of  salvation  for  thee. 

The  melancholy  which  overspread  the  entire  life  of 
Nicholas  deepened  under  discouragement,  and  the  flame 
of  his  life  flickered  out  in  gloom. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   REFORMS   OF   ALEXANDER  II. 

ALEXANDER  II.,  on  his  accession  to  power,  entertained 
the  liberal  ideas  of  Alexander  I.,  and  he  was  able  to 
accomplish  much  more  than  his  predecessor.  Nicholas 
had  limited  the  students  in  each  university  to  three 
hundred.  Alexander  repealed  the  limitation.  He  re- 
duced the  excessive  fees  for  passports,  and  allowed  new 
journals  to  be  established;  the  duties  of  individuals  to  the 
State  were  made  less  burdensome,  the  condition  of  the 
Jews  was  bettered,  the  children  of  soldiers  and  of  sailors 
were  restored  to  their  parents.  (What  volumes  of  sugges- 
tion lie  in  this  sentence  ! )  The  corruption  during  the 
Crimean  War  was  such  that  Russian  officials,  who  had 
been  created  into  an  order  of  nobility  by  Peter  the  Great, 
now  fell  into  universal  contempt.  Alexander  II.  did 
something  to  lessen  this  corruption  by  the  creation  of  local 
assemblies,  called  zcmstvos. 

These  bodies  have  played  quite  an  important  part  in 
Russian  economy.  Many  sanguine  friends  of  Russian  in- 
stitutions saw  in  them  the  true  ideal  of  government, — 
local  self-rule  by  assemblies  selected  by  the  people,  with 
the  consolidating  power  of  autocracy  binding  the  whole 

95 


g6  Slav  or  Saxon. 

together  and  dealing  with  all  national  and  foreign  affairs. 
The  most  sanguine  hopes  were  entertained  that  these 
bodies  would  regenerate  the  entire  Russian  State,  restore 
liberty,  abolish  corruption,  educate  the  people,  and  make 
of  Russia  an  earthly  paradise.  It  has  been  the  tendency 
of  the  Russians  to  expect  great  things  from  each  new 
reform  introduced  by  government,  and  the  disappoint- 
ment is  always  keen  and  bitter  when  the  performance 
does  not  come  up  to  the  prophecy.  This  was  true  of  the 
zemstvos,  of  the  Act  of  Emancipation,  of  the  new  tribunals 
and  law  reforms,  and  all  the  other  liberal  measures  intro- 
duced at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Alexander.  These 
local  assemblies  contain  representatives  from  the  two  great 
classes  of  Russia,  from  the  nobility  (which,  before  emanci- 
pation, was  the  only  land-owning  class),  and  from  the 
communes  of  the  Russian  peasantry,  a  class  which  con- 
stitutes three  fourths  of  the  entire  population  of  Russia. 
The  law  provides  that  the  preponderance  in  nearly  all 
these  assemblies  shall  remain  with  the  nobles,  but  class 
spirit  is  not  strong  in  Russia,  and  nobles  and  peasants  sit 
side  by  side  around  the  same  table  and  conduct  their  busi- 
ness concerning  education,  sanitary  measures,  highways, 
fire  protection,  and  other  local  matters  in  great  harmony. 
The  main  trouble  hitherto  has  been  the  lack  of  sufficient 
public  interest  to  induce  the  representatives  to  attend. 
Their  powers  are  extremely  limited,  they  have  not  even 
the  right  to  send  a  petition  to  the  autocrat.  This  privi- 
lege is  reserved  to  the  assemblies  of  the  nobles  only.  All 
matters  o,f  national  politics  are  strictly  forbidden.  In  one 
or  two  instances  a  demand  for  a  constitution  was  met  with 


The  Reforms  of  Alexander  II.  97 

a  stern  reprimand,  and  the  banishment  of  some  of  the 
leading  spirits.  A  demand  for  the  abolition  of  adminis- 
trative exile,  by  which  men  are  transported  for  supposed 
political  offences  without  trial,  was  equally  unsuccessful. 
The  annual  session  of  twenty  days  is  insufficient  to  transact 
important  business.  No  power  is  afforded  to  these  local 
assemblies  for  enforcing  their  own  resolutions.  The  gover- 
nor of  the  province  may,  by  his  veto,  delay  for  a  year  the  ex- 
ecution of  any  of  their  measures.  Meanwhile  such  measures 
are  sent  for  examination  to  the  central  government  at  St. 
Petersburg.  The  financial  resources  of  the  zemstvos  are 
utterly  inadequate,  yet  with  all  these  drawbacks,  they 
have  done  much*  Facilities  for  education  were  greatly  in- 
creased during  the  first  years  of  their  activity.  First  in 
rank,  in  this  respect,  was  the  zemstvo  of  Viatka,  where  a 
majority  of  the  members  were  peasants.  The  Russian 
moujik  has  shown  an  earnest  desire  for  learning,  and  did 
all  he  could  for  the  establishment  of  village  schools,  until 
the  government  interfered  and  took  the  matter  out  of  his 
hands.  Second  among  his  cares  was  a  desire  for  better  sani- 
tary measures  in  a  country  where  medical  science  has  been 
hitherto  unknown.  Female  physicians  were  employed  for 
the  village  communities.  These  were  the  only  ones  accessi- 
ble within  the  narrow  means  of  the  zemstvos.  But  here, 
too,  the  government  crippled  their  efforts.  Women  doc- 
tors were  considered  dangerous  instruments  of  revolu- 
tionary propaganda,  and  the  government  limited  the' 
number  which  might  be  employed.  Savings  banks,  drain- 
age, and  a  system  of  mutual  fire-insurance  also  occupied 
their  attention.  In  a  small  way  the  zemstvos  have  done 


98  Slav  or  Saxon. 

much  good,  so  much,  indeed,  that  the  government  has 
been  continually  withdrawing  the  narrow  powers  which  it 
formerly  conceded  to  them. 

Another  reform  which  marked  the  first  years  of  the 
reign  of  Alexander,  was  the  abolition  of  many  of  the  re- 
strictions of  the  censorship.  "  Speech,  that  was  long  re- 
strained by  police  and  censorial  regulations,  now  flows 
smoothly,  harmoniously,  and  majestically,  like  a  mighty 
river  that  has  just  been  freed  from  ice."  Periodicals  soon 
appeared  with  articles  on  trade  and  political  economy. 
Even  official  corruption  was  discussed. 

But  these  new  concessions  granted  to  liberty  were  soon 
withdrawn.  Alexander  II.  followed  in  the  footsteps  of 
Alexander  I. :  liberal  in  the  beginning,  reactionary  and 
tyrannical  in  his  later  years. 

Another  important  reform,  introduced  at  the  beginning 
of  his  reign,  was  the  establishment  of  the  new  tribunals. 
The  procedure  of  the  Russian  courts  had  been  secret, 
written,  venal,  and  inquisitorial.  The  police  had  entire 
control  of  criminal  matters.  The  fate  of  suitors  com- 
monly depended  upon  the  length  of  their  purses.  The 
judges,  without  exception,  supplemented  their  meagre 
salaries  with  bribes.  The  most  honest  judge  was  he 
who  took  from  both  sides  and  decided  as  he  thought 
right.  A  great  change  was  made  by  Alexander.  The 
proceedings  became  public,  higher  salaries  were  given, 
the  profession  of  the  bar  came  into  life,  and  criminal 
causes  were  tried  by  jury.  Still  the  right  to  banish  for 
suspected  crimes  against  the  State  was  not  affected,  and 
later,  Alexander  recalled  much  that  he  had  given.  Politi- 


The  Reforms  of  Alexander  II.  99 

cal  trials  are  secret ;  they  are  confided  to  military  tribu- 
nals ;  none  but  an  officer  of  the  army  may  represent  the 
accused.  Even  the  ordinary  criminal  judges  receive,  for 
the  most  part,  provisional  and  probationary  appointments. 
The  condition  of  the  courts  and  the  perversions  of  justice 
in  recent  years  will  be  described  hereafter. 

But  the  great  reform  of  Alexander  was  the  abolition  of 
serfdom.  It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  history  of  this  re- 
markable institution,  and  to  consider  its  character  ^s  well 
as  the  character  of  the  people  upon  whom  it  was  imposed. 
The  monjik,  or  peasant,  is  par  excellence  the  typical 
Russian.  At  the  time  of  the  Tartar  invasion,  the 
peasants  were  the  Krestianin,  or  Christians,  who  remained 
uncorrupted,  free  from  the  infusion  of  Tartar  blood  and 
Tartar  infidelity.  In  the  opinion  of  the  Slavophils,  the 
peasantry  of  Russia  contains  the  great  undeveloped 
potentiality  of  Russian  growth.  It  is  the  "  unhatched 
egg  "  ;  the  "  unawakened  Sphynx,"  which  hides  within 
its  breast  the  undivulged  secret  of  the  future.  Endowed 
with  considerable  natural  intelligence,  but  wholly  lacking 
even  the  most  rudimentary  instruction,  the  peasant 
is  like  the  giant  of  the  Russian  legend  "  Ilya  of  Mur- 
oum,"  who  has  never  been  able  to  show  his  power  and 
talent.  Reduced  to  servitude,  he  has  been  bound  to 
the  soil  and  loaded  with  chains,  and  even  when  freed 
at  last,  he  has  no  longer  the  use  of  his  limbs  nor  the 
knowledge  of  his  power.  The  causes  of  serfdom  are  not 
hard  to  find.  It  was  not  an  Asiatic  importation.  It  was 
an  institution  which  grew  up  with  the  Grand  Principality 
of  Moscow.  In  the  very  early  history  of  the  Russians,  as 


roo  Slav  or  Saxon. 

early  as  the  time  of  laroslaf,  or  even  before  that,  slaves 
were  taken  in  battle  and  became  the  absolute  property  of 
their  captors,  but  the  origin  of  serfdom  is  not  to  be  traced 
to  this  source.  The  serfs  were  originally  the  free  cultiva- 
tors of  the  soil.  With  the  growth  of  military  power  the 
peasant  naturally  sank  in  the  social  scale.  The  history  of 
serfdom  in  Russia  is  the  same  as  that  of  similar  institu- 
tions in  countries  which  are  at  the  same  time  agricultural 
and  military.  While  Russian  unity  was  being  cemented 
under  the  Princes  of  Moscow,  the  followers  of  the  Prince, 
the  nobles  and  the  small  landholders  had  to  be  equipped 
and  properly  supplied  for  war.  The  labor  of  the  culti- 
vators of  the  soil  was  brought  into  use  for  this  purpose, 
but  there  was  no  limitation  confining  the  peasant  to 
any  particular  tract  or  any  particular  master;  he  might 
change  masters  every  year  upon  St.  George's  Day ;  land 
had  little  value  except  that  given  it  by  the  peasants 
who  dwelt  upon  it.  The  larger  the  estate  the  more 
productive  was  cultivation,  and  the  less  severe  were  the 
exactions  of  the  master.  The  result  was  that  the 
peasants  abandoned  the  lesser  proprietors  and  entered 
the  service  of  the  wealthier  nobles,  and  thus  a  large 
portion  of  the  smaller  land  owners,  who  followed  the 
Prince  in  his  wars,  were  unable  to  equip  and  support 
themselves  properly,  and  the  military  service  suffered. 
To  remedy  this,  Boris  Godunof  prohibited  the  peasants 
from  changing  their  masters,  and  fixed  them  to  the 
glebe  ;  he  afterward  modified  this  decree  and  per- 
mitted changes  from  one  small  land  owner  to  another, 
but  this  liberty  was  again  revoked  at  a  later  period. 


The  Reforms  of  Alexan&r ~lL  101 


Once  fixed  to  the  soil,  the  peasant  soon  lost  all  civil 
rights. 

When  Peter  the  Great  provided  that  every  noble  should 
remain  in  the  service  of  the  State  during  his  entire  life, 
a  natural  corollary  of  this  arrangement  was  that  he  should 
be  supported  by  the  labor  of  his  serfs,  and  we  find  that 
the  power  of  the  master,  during  Peter's  reign,  was  con- 
firmed and  strengthened.  The  State  abandoned  to  the 
landed  proprietor  the  civil  administration  and  police 
power  in  his  domains.  The  noble  became  the  agent 
of  the  State  for  the  government  of  his  serfs. 

Peter  III.  freed  the  nobility  from  the  obligation  of  life- 
long service  to  the  State  ;  the  logical  sequence  of  this 
would  have  been  to  free  the  serfs  from  their  correspond- 
ing obligations,  but  no  such  step  was  taken.  In  the 
reign  of  Catharine  II.,  the  power  of  the  master  was  still  fur- 
ther strengthened  ;  he  could  send  his  serfs  to  Siberia  at 
will.  From  the  reforms  of  subsequent  reigns  the  serfs 
received  no  benefit. 

Serfdom  was  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  dominions 
of  the  ancient  Principality  of  Moscow.  It  prevailed  to 
the  greatest  extent  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  ancient 
Russian  capital.  It  did  not  exist  in  the  extreme  North, 
nor  among  the  Cossacks  and  Tartars,  nor  did  it  ever  gain 
a  firm  foothold  in  Siberia.  The  peasantry  were  about 
equally  divided  into  two  great  classes — crown  peasants  or 
serfs  belonging  to  the  State,  and  serfs  belonging  to  indi- 
vidual proprietors.  At  the  time  of  the  emancipation 
there  were  about  twenty-two  millions  of  each  class;  there 
was  also  a  much  smaller  number  of  household  servants 


IO2  ^  ^Slav  or  Saxon. 


and  serfs  belonging  to  the  appanages.  The  serfs  belong- 
ing to  the  crown  enjoyed  greater  liberty  than  the  other 
classes.  During  the  entire  continuance  of  this  remark- 
able system,  the  little  agricultural  villages,  composed 
of  these  serfs,  retained  their  original  Slavonic  form  of 
communal  government  ;  they  had  their  mir  to  settle  their 
internal  disputes,  and  they  tilled  in  common  the  land 
which  they  held. 

This  was  also  true  with  many  of  the  serfs  belonging  to 
the  nobles,  but  there  was  no  general  rule  upon  the  sub- 
ject. Their  condition  depended  largely  upon  the  caprice 
of  the  masters.  The  peasants  belonging  to  the  large 
proprietors  were  generally  the  most  fortunate.  The  great 
noble,  Cheremetief,  had  among  his  serfs  men  who  became 
millionnaires.  There  were  two  systems  greatly  in  vogue 
for  securing  the  labor  of  serfs.  First,  the  Corvee,  under 
which  the  master  was  entitled  to  the  labor  of  the  serfs 
three  days  in  each  week,  the  remainder  of  the  time  being- 
given  to  the  peasant  to  cultivate  his  own  land  for  his  own 
support.  Second,  the  Obrok  system,  which  was  more 
favorable  to  the  peasant.  Under  this  he  was  permitted  to 
enjoy  his  liberty  and  to  follow  whatever  trade  or  occupa- 
tion he  desired,  upon  condition  of  paying  a  certain  annual 
sum  to  his  proprietor.  The  household  servants  bore  a 
much  closer  resemblance  to  our  own  slaves  ;  these  were 
not  attached  to  the  soil,  and  were  sold  and  treated  in 
much  the  same  manner  as  the  negroes  in  the  South.  Up 
to  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  there  was  a  regu- 
lar class  of  slave-dealers,  and  advertisements  of  sales  ap- 
peared in  the  public  press  and  in  handbills  in  the  streets. 


The  Reforms  of  Alexander  IL  103 

Wallace  gives  many  instances :  "  In  this  house  one  can 
buy  a  coachman  and  a  Dutch  cow  about  to  calve";  "To 
be  sold — three  coachmen,  well  trained  and  handsome, 
and  three  girls,"  etc.  Alexander  I.  prohibited  these  ad- 
vertisements, but  the  traffic  continued.  Even  in  the  case 
of  peasants  bound  to  the  glebe,  their  condition  depended 
more  upon  the  character  of  their  masters  than  upon  any 
protection  afforded  to  them  by  the  law.  Serfdom  bore 
with  crushing  weight  upon  all  the  institutions  of  Russia. 
The  wasteful  system  of  agriculture  which  it  encouraged, 
the  violation  of  human  rights  which  it  sanctioned,  and 
the  moral  degradation  which  it  imposed  upon  the  com- 
munity, find  their  best  parallel  in  our  own  Southern 
States  before  the  war.  The  nobles  themselves,  however, 
were  more  keenly  alive  to  these  disadvantages  than  the 
slave-owners  of  the  South.  Public  opinion  was  gradu- 
ally ripening  for  a  change  in  the  system.  Russia  had  its 
"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  in  the  "  Dead  Souls  "  of  Gogol, 
and  the  "  Recollections  of  a  Sportsman,"  by  Turgeneff. 
The  disasters  of  the  Crimean  War  were  generally  laid  to 
the  charge  of  the  corrupt  social  organization  fostered  by 
this  baleful  institution,  and  a  large  part  of  the  proprietors 
co-operated  heartily  with  the  Czar  in  his  projects  of  re- 
form. 

While  something  may  be  attributed  to  the  liberal  and 
humanitarian  views  of  Alexander,  the  main  cause  of  his 
great  scheme  of  emancipation  was  the  financial  disad- 
vantage of  serf  labor.  The  experience  of  the  world 
everywhere  is  that  no  such  system  can  be  made  highly 
productive,  that  the  proper  incentives  to  industry  are 


IO4  Slav  or  Saxon. 

wanting,  and  that  there  is  always  more  or  less  danger  of 
a  social  catastrophe  in  the  shape  of  a  servile  war.  Alex- 
ander repeatedly  said  that  it  was  better  to  reform  from 
above  than  from  below,  and  he  appeared  to  regard  the 
danger  of  insurrection  as  formidable.  He  proceeded  by 
gradual  steps,  and  the  emancipation  was  accomplished  in 
a  masterly  manner.  So  far  as  crown  peasants  were  con- 
cerned, there  was  little  difficulty;  there  was  little  to 
do  but  declare  them  free,  to  remove  the  restrictions  on 
their  right  to  come  and  go,  to  acquire  land,  and  dispose 
of  their  goods.  The  Lithuanians,  who  had  shown  a 
disposition  to  aid  Alexander  in  his  project,  were  also 
authorized  to  free  their  serfs. 

The  great  difficulty  with  proprietary  serfage  was  that 
granting  liberty  alone  was  not  enough,  for  the  serf,  al- 
though subject  to  his  master,  had  rights  in  the  land. 
The  peasant's  maxim  was:  "We  are  yours,  but  the  land 
is  ours."  To  grant  mere  liberty  to  the  peasant  and  to 
leave  the  land  to  his  master  would  be  to  form  an  immense 
proletariat.  All  obligations  upon  the  part  of  the  master 
would  be  removed  and  the  peasant  would  still  be  com- 
pletely at  his  mercy.  A  system  of  peonage  would  be 
established  worse  than  serfdom.  It  was  necessary  to  se- 
cure to  the  peasants  at  least  part  of  the  property  they 
had  cultivated,  and  to  strengthen  the  village  communities 
as  a  bulwark  against  pauperism. 

By  the  edict  of  1861  the  peasants  were  made  free,  and 
the  lands  actually  occupied  by  them  were  granted  to 
them.  These  varied  in  quantity  generally  in  inverse 
ratio  to  their  fertility ;  the  average  was  about  nine  acres 


The  Reforms  of  Alexander  I L  105 

to  each  male  head  of  a  family.  The  serfs  were  to  pay 
a  perpetual  rent  for  the  lands  granted  to  them,  but  they 
were  authorized,  in  their  discretion,  to  purchase  these 
lands  in  fee.  Four  fifths  of  the  purchase-money  was 
loaned  to  them  by  the  government,  and  they  were  to  re- 
pay the  amount  loaned  by  a  series  of  annual  payments, 
extending  over  fifty  years.  Most  of  the  peasants  availed 
themselves  of  this  right  of  purchase,  and  they  are  still  en- 
gaged in  the  task  of  paying  for  the  lands  conceded  to 
them  by  the  Act  of  Emancipation.  The  village  govern- 
ment of  the  mir,  with  the  starosta  at  its  head,  was  con- 
firmed. These  villages  were  combined  in  the  volost  or 
Canton  under  the  starschina. 

During  the  emancipation  many  disputes  occurred  be- 
tween the  peasants  and  their  former  masters  in  regard  to 
the  amount  and  value  of  the  land  which  they  were  to 
receive.  Reports  had  been  circulated  among  them  that 
the  Czar  had  made  them  a  free  gift  of  the  soil  which  they 
cultivated,  and  there  was  great  dissatisfaction  when  they 
found  that  they  were  compelled  to  pay  for  land  which 
they  had  always  considered  their  own  ;  but  the  tribunals 
to  which  the  government  had  entrusted  the  delicate  ques- 
tion of  appraisement  performed  their  office  with  great 
skill,  and  the  discontent  was  finally  allayed. 

Much  credit  is  due  to  the  old  masters  for  the  disinter- 
ested manner  in  which  these  "  Arbitrators  of  the  Peace," 
selected  from  the  ranks  of  the  nobility,  performed  their 
functions.  Enfranchisement  was  effected  in-  Russia  in  a 
manner  far  more  skilful  than  in  our  own  country,  where  it 
was  accomplished  through  the  terrible  agency  of  civil  war. 


io6  Slav  or  Saxon. 

Yet  the  Russian  people  have  been  perhaps  less  satisfied 
with  its  results. 

Subsequent  investigation  has  been  made  by  the  govern- 
ment as  to  the  effects  of  emancipation  upon  the  peas- 
ants. While  the  ultimate  results  can  scarcely  be  other- 
wise than  good,  the  temporary  inconveniences  were  very 
great.  The  serfs  have  been  compelled  to  work  harder 
than  ever  to  pay  for  the  land  which  they  had  always 
cultivated  and  regarded  as  their  own.  The  complete 
ignorance  of  the  Russian  moujik  has  laid  him  open  to 
vices  which  serfdom  did  much  to  suppress.  Drunken- 
ness has  probably  increased  since  emancipation.  The  peas- 
ants are  now  free,  of  course,  from  the  former  claims  of  their 
masters;  they  used  to  be  obliged  to  work  for  him  three 
days  each  week  ;  they  could  not  change  their  residence 
without  his  permission  ;  the  master  could  seller  mortgage 
the  land  to  which  they  were  attached,  permit  or  forbid 
them  to  marry,  and  inflict  upon  them  corporal  punish- 
ment. All  these  things  are  past. 

Under  the  new  system  the  land  is  not  granted  to  the 
peasant  personally,  but  to  the  village  community,  by 
which  it  is  held  in  common. 

This  communal  system  has  its  advantages  and  its 
drawbacks.  The  government  collects  the  taxes,  not 
from  individuals,  but  from  the  mir.  In  many  communi- 
ties the  taxes  are  greater  than  the  rental  value  of  the 
land.  In  these  places  the  peasants  eke  out  the  deficiency 
by  industrial  pursuits,  by  the  manufacture  of  articles 
which  are  sold  in  the  cities  and  in  other  parts  of  the  em- 
pire. Many  leave  their  villages  and  ply  their  trades  else- 


The  Reforms  of  Alexander  II.  107 

where,  paying  to  the  commune  for  this  privilege  their 
ratable  proportion  of  the  tax.  The  rigorous  passport  sys- 
tem, which  prevails  in  Russia,  enables  the  mir  to  keep 
them  in  its  power,  even  though  they  may  travel  great 
distances  in  search  of  work.  But  in  the  most  fertile  parts 
of  Russia,  including  the  great  zone  of  the  Black  Land,  the 
produce  of  the  soil  is  more  than  sufficient  to  pay  the  tax 
and  to  afford  the  means  of  subsistence  to  the  peasants 
who  cultivate  it.  The  land  is  not  farmed  in  common,  but 
is  divided  among  the  villagers,  at  periods  varying,  in  dif- 
crent  communities,  from  one  to  fifteen  years.  This  distri- 
bution is  made  by  the  village  assembly,  which  meets  in 
council  in  the  open  air,  generally  upon  Sunday,  in  front 
of  the  church. 

By  this  system,  the  peasants  are  protected  from  pauper- 
ism. Each  peasant  has  his  own  plot  of  land,  and  the 
means  of  gaining  a  livelihood.  Of  this  he  cannot  be  per- 
manently deprived,  even  by  his  own  improvidence.  But 
the  system  has  its  disadvantage  in  discouraging  individual 
enterprise.  There  is  no  motive  for  permanent  improve- 
ment of  the  land,  when  the  man  who  makes  it  cannot 
avail  himself  of  the  benefit  of  such  improvements.  It 
is  a  system  which  encourages  mediocrity,  and  consti- 
tutes a  bar  to  any  great  economical  progress.  These 
communes  are  often  extremely  tyrannical.  If  one  of 
their  members  is  more  prudent  and  successful  than  the 
rest  and  saves  something,  his  fellow  villagers  often  compel 
him  to  disgorge,  by  fines,  capriciously  imposed,  or  by  other 
vexatious  restraints  upon  his  liberty.  It  is  common  for 
the  more  prosperous  peasants  to  feign  poverty.  Some- 


Io8  Slav  or  Saxon. 

times  a  monjik  wjll  buy  the  right  to  leave  his  commune. 
The  fact  that  the  mir,  as  a  whole,  is  responsible  to  the 
government  for  all  taxes,  as  well  as  for  the  purchase-money 
of  the  land  (which  has  been  loaned  by  the  State),  gives  it 
great  power  in  controlling  the  actions  of  its  members.  A 
peasant  may  be  publicly  whipped  or  banished  to  Siberia 
by  his  fellow  villagers  assembled  in  council. 

A  commission  of  inquiry,  instituted  by  the  government 
attributes  the  slow  growth  of  agriculture  to  the  communal 
system,  and  yet  if  these  communities  were  more  intelligent, 
and  farmed  the  land  together  instead  of  dividing  it  for  short 
periods  of  time,  it  might  be  found  that  ownership  and  culti- 
vation in  common  were  well  adapted  to  these  vast  plains, 
where  farmingought  to  be  carried  on  upon  a  large  scale  to  be 
most  productive,  and  where  the  use  of  improved  agricul- 
tural machinery  could  be  undertaken  more  effectively  by 
the  commune  than  by  a  single  individual.  Conducted 
by  intelligence,  cooperation  is  no  more  impossible  in  agri- 
cultural enterprises  than  in  manufactures,  where  it  has 
been  conducted  with  such  success  through  the  agency  of 
corporations.  It  is  the  union  of  this  joint  ownership  with 
dense  ignorance,  which,  in  Russia,  retards  the  advance- 
ment of  industry. 

Politically,  the  consequences  of  emancipation  have  been 
very  slight.  It  has  not  affected,  thus  far,  the  power  of 
the  despotism.  Economically,  it  has  added  something 
to  the  stimulus  to  production,  but  this  is  still  greatly  re- 
strained. Its  moral  effects  have  been  most  important.  They 
can  be  seen  in  greater  freedom  of  conscience  and  individual 
responsibility,  in  the  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the 


The  Reforms  of  Alexander  II.  109 

women,  in  the  weakening  of  patriarchal  institutions,  and 
in  the  growth  of  greater  individualism.  Many  of  the 
peasants  have  been  able,  from  their  savings,  to  purchase 
small  tracts  from  their  former  masters,  which  they  culti- 
vate upon  their  individual  account.  In  the  more  fertile 
districts  land  has  increased  in  value.  The  nobles  have 
been  the  greatest  losers  by  the  change.  They  had  an 
easier  life  of  it  while  serfdom  existed.  Since  its  aboli- 
tion they  have  had  to  give  up  their  traditional  indolence 
and  dependence  upon  the  labor  of  others.  They  have 
been  compelled  to  shift  for  themselves.  The  skilful  and 
provident  have  held  their  own,  while  the  shiftless  and 
careless  have  lost  their  all.  The  land  of  Russia  is  gradually 
passing  from  the  hands  of  the  nobles  who  used  to  own  it 
all,  into  the  hands  of  the  merchants,  and  the  moujiks. 

Individual  ownership  and  joint  ownership  being  found 
side  by  side  in  Russia,  if  the  government  will  withhold 
its  hand,  the  type  which  is  found  best  adapted  to  sur- 
rounding conditions  will  undoubtedly  prevail.  This  non- 
interference, however,  is  a  thing  which  can  never  be 
predicated  of  the  Russian  administration.  Its  tendency 
is  to  direct  the  most  minute  affairs  of  life. 

After  emancipation  was  accomplished,  the  nobles,  in 
consideration  of  the  sacrifices  which  they  had  undergone 
in  being  deprived  of  their  serfs,  demanded  reforms  in 
their  own  favor.  They  claimed  for  themselves  a  larger 
degree  of  liberty.  Quite  radical  measures  were  considered, 
but  the  discussions  were  soon  met  with  police  interference, 
and  a  stern  reprimand  from  the  Czar.  Gradually  the 
views  of  Alexander  changed.  A  reaction  took  place,  and 


1 10  Slav  or  Saxon. 

the  conservative  and  tyrannical  policy  of  Nicholas  was 
re-established.  The  Poles  asked  for  a  constitution,  great 
public  demonstrations  of  unarmed  men  met  and  could 
only  be  dispersed  by  the  muskets  of  the  soldiery.  Katkof, 
the  editor  of  the  Moscow  Gazette,  an  influential  organ  in 
Russia,  urged  severity ;  finally  the  use  of  the  Polish  lan- 
guage and  even  the  Polish  alphabet  was  forbidden.  Cath- 
olic churches  were  closed  ;  whole  villages  were  destroyed. 
Poland  did  not  share  in  the  reforms  which  Alexander 
granted  elsewhere,  such  as  the  zemstvos  and  the  new 
tribunals.  All  Poles  compromised  in  the  demonstrations 
were  commanded  to  sell  their  estates. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  PRESENT  DESPOTISM. 

As  we  are  now  coming  down  to  our  own  time,  it  may 
be  convenient  to  take  a  brief  glance  at  the  present  methods 
of  the  Russian  government,  whose  policy  has  remained 
nearly  constant  since  the  last  reactionary  movements  of 
Alexander  II. 

Nowhere  else  in  the  world  is  there  the  same  control  by 
the  central  government,  not  only  of  local  affairs,  but  of 
the  most  minute  particulars  of  individual  life.  The  peo- 
ple are  treated  as  if  they  were  minors,  incapable  of  doing 
any  thing  for  themselves.  "  Neither  a  chair  in  a  college 
nor  a  bed  in  a  hospital  can  be  endowed  without  the  inter- 
vention of  the  State." 

Under  Nicholas,  not  a  house  could  be  built  having 
more  than  five  windows,  without  leave  from  St.  Peters- 
burg. The  Russian  remains  all  his  life  "  like  a  soldier  in 
his  regiment,  who  marches,  halts,  advances,  retreats,  lifts 
his  leg  or  his  foot  at  the  command  of  the  instructing  ser- 
geant." Education,  the  press,  the  judiciary,  and  the  in- 
telligence and  virtue  of  the  people  are  alike  stifled  by  this 
blighting  influence. 

Thanks    to    the   aid    of    the    rapid  auxiliaries  furnished  by 


112  Slav  or  Saxon. 

modern  science  ;  thanks  to  steam  and  electricity,  business  has 
been  more  and  more  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  Minis- 
ters. .  .  .  The  Russian  administration  has  become  like  an 
endless  chain,  along  which  business  has  moved  mechanically, 
slowly,  going  up  and  down,  from  office  to  office,  to  the  great 
injury  of  the  interests  of  the  country  (Leroy-Beaulieu). 

First,  let  us  consider  the  policy  of  Russia  in  respect  to 
education.  So  completely  is  the  spirit  of  Russian  govern- 
ment opposed  to  liberal  culture,  that  the  universities  there 
are  not,  as  with  us,  simple  institutions  of  learning;  they 
are  the  centres  of  all  that  there  is  of  Russian  agitation. 
The  university  students  are  almost  the  only  educated  per- 
sons in  the  empire  who  are  not  restrained  by  the  caution 
of  age  or  the  selfishness  of  station  and  property.  They 
are  almost  the  only  class  who  discuss,  with  any  freedom, 
political  affairs.  Hence  they  are  continually  subject  to 
the  interference  of  the  police ;  their  clubs  and  unions,  and 
even  their  social  meetings,  are  frequently  dispersed.  Inqui- 
ries are  made  of  porters  and  of  the  lodging-house  keepers, 
as  to  the  habits  of  the  students,  whom  they  entertain, 
what  hours  they  keep,  and  what  company,  and  how  they 
express  themselves.  An  examination  of  their  books  and 
papers  is  frequently  made  by  the  police  in  their  absence. 
The  police  inspector  appointed  by  the  government  may, 
with  the  approbation  of  the  curator,  expel  a  student  with- 
out inquiry.  He  can  deny  scholarships  at  will,  or  refuse 
permission  to  any  student  to  give  private  lessons,  thus 
taking  away  the  student's  means  of  livelihood.  Students 
are  often  banished  for  mere  breaches  of  scholastic  disci- 
pline, the  banishment  being  sometimes  permanent  exile. 


The  Present  Despotism.  1 1 3 

The  police  frequently  ask  for  the  names  of  all  who  have 
been  brought  before  the  university  tribunals,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  adding  exile  or  other  government  punishment  to 
that  of  the  university.  The  law  of  i£8i  directs  the  coun- 
cils of  the  universities  to  try  all  students  who  have  been 
tried  and  acquitted  by  ordinary  courts,  or  who  have  expi- 
ated their  offences  against  the  civil  law  by  a  term  of  im- 
prisonment. If  the  police  certify  that  the  young  man 
has  acted  out  of  pure  thoughtlessness,  the  council  may 
acquit  or  expel  him  at  its  discretion,  but  should  they  im- 
pute perverse  intent,  the  council  must  expel  him.  Count 
Tolstoi,  when  in  charge  of  the  department  of  education, 
tried  to  reduce  the  number  of  students  by  increasing  the 
fees  and  making  the  examinations  more  rigid.  The  num- 
ber of  students  in  the  St.  Petersburg  school  of  medicine 
was  reduced  to  five  hundred  by  imperial  decree,  and  the 
terms  shortened  from  five  to  three.  In  1872  the  female 
school  of  medicine  was  abolished.  By  recent  arrange- 
ments, the  faculty  of  each  university  were  made  mere 
agents  appointed  by  the  government  officers,  whose  tenure 
of  office  depends  wholly  upon  their  subserviency.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  believe  that  the  best  professors,  the  men 
of  talent  and  learning,  are  being  weeded  out. 

When  we  come  to  secondary  instruction,  we  find  that 
even  the  schoolboy,  from  ten  to  seventeen  years  of  age, 
may  be  banished  for  holding  wrong  political  opinions. 
History,  Russian  literature,  and  even  geography,  are 
discouraged  by  the  Minister  of  Instruction,  on  account 
of  their  dangerous  tendencies.  In  the  seminaries  the 
classics  are  almost  the  only  things  taught.  Nine 


1 14  Slav  or  Saxon. 

boys  out  of  ten  are  dropped  at  examinations.  Such  a 
system,  as  Stepniak  says,  is  not  a  test  of  proficiency,  it 
is  a  "massacre  of  the  innocents,"  a  plan  for  depriving  the 
vast  majority  of  all  chance  of  a  useful  career.  The  "  real " 
or  scientific  schools  are  few  in  number,  and  the  in- 
struction afforded  by  them  is  imperfect.  A  more  com- 
plete course  is  given  in  what  is  known  as  the  supple- 
mentary section,  which,  however,  is  limited  to  two  years. 
The  instruction  even  here  is  quite  superficial.  So  inade- 
quate are  these  schools  to  meet  the  demand  for  education, 
that  out  of  a  thousand  applicants  not  more  than  two  hun- 
dred are  received,  but  still  the  government  forbids  new 
colleges,  lest,  being  recruited  from  the  poorer  classes,  they 
should  become  infected  with  socialism.  The  graduates 
from  the  "  real  "  schools  are  excluded  from  the  univer- 
sities. The  government  does  not  want  any  student 
to  know  too  much.  At  the  Cronstadt  Technical  School 
there  were  only  thirty  places  for  one  hundred  and  fifty-six 
applicants. 

One  would  think  that  even  a  despotism  might  en- 
courage primary  instruction  ;  yet  in  Russia,  elementary 
education  is  so  restricted  that  it  confers  but  little  benefit 
upon  its  possessor.  Prior  to  the  emancipation  in  1861 
there  was  scarcely  any  instruction  in  Russia  of  this  char- 
acter. A  considerable  number  of  the  schools  which  were 
supposed  to  exist,  and  which  were  paid  for  out  of  the 
exchequer,  existed  only  "  on  paper  "  ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
officers  in  charge  of  them  simply  took  the  money  and  put 
it  in  their  pockets.  The  reports  furnished  to  the  de- 
partment were  simply  fictions.  Some  primary  instruction, 


The  Present  Despotism.  1 1 5 

however,  was  given  by  private  effort.  Finally,  in  1864,  con- 
trol of  elementary  instruction  was  given  to  the  zemstvos, 
or  local  assemblies.  But  the  revenues  of  these  bodies,  for 
all  local  purposes,  industrial,  sanitary,  and  educational,  was 
only  one  twentieth  of  the  entire  revenue.  They  could  do 
but  little ;  still  they  started  training-schools  for  teachers, 
but  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  vetoed  these  pro- 
posed normal  colleges,  deeming  them  a  means  of  political 
contamination.  After  the  German  war  he  yielded  this 
point  reluctantly.  Then,  in  1870,  he  concluded  that  the 
primary  schools  were  sources  of  political  propaganda,  and 
he  created  a  sort  of  private  police  to  watch  the  teachers. 
The  character  of  the  instruction  and  its  political  tenden- 
cies, with  "  observations  and  conjectures,"  were  to  be 
reported.  The  numerous  interferences,  encouraged  by 
the  government,  render  the  position  of  a  teacher  unbeara- 
ble. The  regulation  of  1874  limits  instruction  in  the 
primary  schools  to  sacred  history,  reading,  writing,  and 
the  first  four  rules  of  arithmetic.  The  minister  refused 
the  petition  of  the  zemstvos  to  permit  the  teaching  of 
geography  and  Russian  grammar.  In  the  schools  of  Fin- 
land and  Poland  the  Russian  language  only  is  taught ;  the 
natives  cannot  learn  to  read  and  write  their  own  tongue. 
The  interference  of  government  inspectors  is  always  for 
the  purpose  of  suppressing  instruction.  In  1879  tne 
zemstvo  of  Riazan  thanked  the  inspectors  for  having 
"  abstained  from  using  the  means  at  their  disposal  to 
thwart  the  zemstvo  in  their  efforts  to  promote  primary 
instruction  and  increase  the  usefulness  of  the  village 
schools." 


Ii6  Slav  or  Saxon. 

The  little  prosperity  that  attended  primary  education 
was  derived  from  the  care  of  these  local  assemblies,  but  in 
1884  the  schools  were  taken  from  the  zemstvos  altogether, 
and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  ignorant  Russian  clergy, 
who  had  never  taken  any  interest  in  them,  and  who  will 
use  them  for  no  purpose  but  the  propagation  of  super- 
stition. Such  is  the  influence  of  Russian  government  on 
popular  instruction. 

The  despotism  is  as  relentless  with  the  press  as  with 
education.  Since  all  knowledge  is  a  threat  to  tyranny, 
the  only  safe  course  is  to*  gag  the  instruments  by  which 
it  can  be  spread.  The  censorship  is  more  stringent  now 
than  it  was  in  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great.  Peter  tor- 
tured and  put  to  death  the  opponents  of  his  reforms, 
but  he  encouraged  general  literature.  So  did  Catharine  the 
Second  at  the  beginning  of  her  reign,  but  when  the  French 
Revolution  laid  the  foundations  of  popular  government  in 
Europe,  this  liberality  disappeared ;  editors  were  im- 
prisoned and  exiled  for  advocating  ideas  which  Catharine 
herself  had  formerly  professed.  During  the  stern  reign 
of  Nicholas,  the  iron  hand  of  autocracy  crushed  out  all 
the  elements  of  growth.  Every  manuscript,  every  news- 
paper article  had  to  be  submitted  to  the  censors  before 
publication.  This  censorship  still  prevails  in  every  part 
of  Russia  except  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg,  and  under 
its  withering  influence  the  press  is  practically  dead. 

In  1865,  during  the  era  of  reform,  the  corrective  cen- 
sure was  instituted  in  these  two  cities.  Papers  may  be 
printed  without  first  submitting  them  to  the  censors,  but 
if  any  thing  offensive  is  published,  the  journal  is  warned, 


The  Present  Despotism.  117 

and  after  three  warnings  it  is  suppressed,  or  the  minister 
may  suspend  publication  for  three  months,  without  warn- 
ing, or  stop  sales  in  the  streets,  or  forbid  advertisements. 
No  judicial  inquiry  is  necessary;  he  simply  does  this  at 
his  own  pleasure.  Absolute  suppression  at  first  required 
a  judicial  inquiry,  but  this  was  too  inconvenient.  The 
emperor  on  one  occasion,  at  a  ball,  ordered  two  news- 
papers suppressed.  The  minister  usually  sends  a  note  to 
the  different  editors  against  the  publication  of  various 
matters  which  he  considers  it  undesirable  for  the  public 
to  know,  such  as  "  the  disturbances  among  the  university 
students,"  accounts  of  "  political  trials,"  etc.  Journals 
mayflratsf,  but  must  not  criticise ',  the  acts  of  the  govern- 
ment in  Bulgaria;  they  must  not  publish  comments  on  the 
decisions  of  the  zemstvos  (their  own  local  representative 
bodies);  they  are  forbidden  to  publish  "  the  report  of  the 
special  commission  of  the  Jews,"  articles  on  "  peasant 
emigration,"  articles  on  "  the  relation  of  peasants  to  other 
landowners,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  Sometimes  newspapers  seem 
to  be  suppressed  from  mere  caprice.  In  some  parts  of 
Russia,  where  the  preventive  censure  exists,  the  govern- 
ment requires  the  submission  of  all  articles  to  a  censor 
living  in  a  remote  district,  involving  sometimes  fifteen 
days'  delay.  Daily  papers  cannot  well  appear  under  such 
conditions.  The  Tiflis  Phalanga  was  suppressed  for 
merely  presenting  to  the  censor  a  drawing  considered  un- 
*suitable.  Eight  St.  Petersburg  papers  have  been  sup- 
pressed during  the  present  reign.  In  1884  the  editor  of 
the  Dido  was  ordered  to  sell  his  journal  to  a  Mr.  Wolf- 
man,  a  reactionist,  with  the  statement  that  if  he  did  not, 


1 1 8  Slav  or  Saxon. 

the  censors  would  refuse  every  article  presented.  Among 
the  works  suppressed  by  Russian  censorship  are  Lecky's 
"  History  of  European  Morals,"  Hobbe's  "  Leviathan,"  and 
Haeckel's  "  History  of  Creation." 

By  a  refinement  of  tyranny,  only  possible  in  Russia,  a 
decree  of  the  censure,  passed  in  1876,  forbade  the  millions 
of  inhabitants  of  Little  Russia  to  print,  sell,  or  circulate 
any  works  in  their  own  tongue,  either  original  or  trans- 
lated. Even  the  circulation  of  foreign  books  in  the  same 
language  is  forbidden.  The  purpose  of  this  decree 
was  to  compel  the  people  of  Little  Russia  to  adopt  the 
language  of  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg.  A  whole  litera- 
ture has  thus  been  annihilated,  and  the  dialects  of  the 
Ukraine,  in  which  the  lightest  and  most  graceful  part  of 
Russian  genius  has  expressed  itself,  have  thus  been  con- 
demned to  eternal  silence,  and  the  people  kept  in  enforced 
ignorance  of  all  written  speech,  unless  they  would  consent 
to  learn  a  language  other  than  their  own. 

But  it  is  in  its  judicial  system  that  the  Russian  govern- 
ment tramples  most  ruthlessly  upon  individual  rights. 
Whenever  the  police  deem  it  best,  they  steal  noiselessly 
through  the  streets  and  alleys  surrounding  a  private 
dwelling  in  the  dead  of  night,  creep  in  silence  up  the 
stairway,  gain  admittance  under  some  false  pretence,  and 
invade  every  room  in  the  house,  waking  the  sleeping  oc- 
cupants. Each  member  of  the  household  is  given  in 
charge  of  a  policeman,  every  thing  in  the  house  is  then 
turned  topsy-turvy,  books,  papers,  private  letters  are  care- 
fully inspected — nothing  is  secret.  It  is  not  necessary 
that  the  police  should  have  any  evidence  for  these  searches  ; 


The  Present  Despotism.  1 19 

an  anonymous  charge  or  a  mere  suspicion  is  enough. 
Houses  have  been  inspected  seven  times  in  a  single  day, 
sometimes  every  house  in  a  street  is  overhauled.  If  any 
thing  is  discovered  to  excite  the  suspicion  of  the  police, 
an  arrest  follows,  and  the  supposed  culprit  is  sent  to  the 
House  of  Preventive  Detention.  There  he  awaits  his 
trial  for  weeks  and  months,  and  sometimes  for  years.  He 
is  brought  out  occasionally  for  examination.  If  he  con- 
fesses nothing,  he  is  sent  back  "  to  reflect."  Sometimes 
the  wrong  man  is  arrested  and  confined  a  year  or  two  be- 
fore the  mistake  is  discovered.  Ponomareff  was  impris- 
oned thus  for  three  years. 

The  solitary  confinement  to  which  prisoners  are  sub- 
jected in  this  House  of  Detention  is  often  fatal.  Consump- 
tion, insanity,  and  suicide  frequently  occur.  The  exami- 
nation of  the  prisoners  and  witnesses  is  dragged  to  an 
interminable  length  ;  in  the  trial  of  the  one  hundred  and 
ninety-three  (one  of  the  celebrated  cases),  the  examination 
lasted  four  years.  Over  seven  hundred  persons,  mostly 
witnesses,  were  kept  in  the  jail  during  this  time.  The 
prosecutor  said  that  only  twenty  persons  deserved  pun- 
ishment, yet  there  were  seventy-three  who  died  from 
suicide  or  from  the  effects  of  confinement.  Confessions 
are  frequently  extorted  by  threats  of  death  or  of  incar- 
ceration in  one  of  the  terrible  fortresses  of  Russia. 
Prisoners  are  deprived  of  the  means  of  reading  and 
writing,  to  extort  evidence  from  them.  The  trials  are  like 
the  preliminary  proceedings.  In  1872  all  political  cases 
were  withdrawn  from  the  ordinary  tribunals  and  "  assigned 
to  particular  Senatorial  chambers,"  appointed  by  the  Em- 


I2O  Slav  or  Saxon. 

peror.  This  court  could  be  relied  upon  to  decide  in 
compliance  with  his  will.  The  offence  of  propagating  revo- 
lutionary doctrines  is  punished  by  penal  servitude  for  from 
five  to  nine  years ;  the  punishment  is  the  same  as  that  for 
robbery  or  unaggravated  murder.  A  number  of  young 
girls  who  had  been  studying  at  Zurich  became  impressed 
with  the  necessity  of  a  larger  liberty  and  greater  equality 
for  the  oppressed  lower  classes  of  Russia  ;  and  knowing 
that  they  could  reach  the  class  whom  they  aimed  to  in- 
struct in  no  other  way,  they  took  places  in  the  cotton 
factories  of  Moscow,  and  taught  their  fellow-opera- 
tors fraternity  and  socialism.  This  was  unaccompa- 
nied by  violence  or  any  threat  of  violence,  yet  they 
received  the  terrible  sentence  of  penal  servitude,  which 
was  afterwards  commuted  to  perpetual  exile  in  Siberia. 
When  the  so-called  Terrorist  period  was  inaugurated  by 
the  use  of  dynamite,  and  an  attack  was  made  upon  the 
life  of  the  Emperor,  the  trial  of  political  offenders  was 
taken  away  from  the  civil  tribunals  and  committed  to  offi- 
cers of  the  army.  Even  the  counsel  for  the  prisoner 
must  be  a  military  officer,  whose  rank  and  fortune  were 
wholly  at  the  mercy  of  the  government.  He  was  not  al- 
lowed access  to  the  depositions  until  a  few  hours  before 
the  trial.  Men  have  been  judged,  condemned,  and  exe- 
cuted in  a  single  day.  Others  have  suffered  death  before 
their  identity  could  be  proved.  Men  have  been  arrested 
at  night,  taken  to  a  private  house,  tried  there  by  officers, 
and  hanged  the  next  day.  Mlodetski  was  sentenced  and 
executed  without  any  judicial  inquiry.  It  appears  from 
the  strongest  evidence  that  these  military  judges  have 


The  Present  Despotism.  1 2 1 

strictly  obeyed  their  masters,  and  have  simply  executed 
sentences  prescribed  beforehand.  In  one  case  the  death 
penalty  was  imposed  as  a  cumulative  sentence  for  a  num- 
ber of  crimes,  each  punishable  by  a  few  years'  penal  servi- 
tude. General  Mrovinsky  and  others  were  sentenced  to 
banishment  because  they  failed  to  discover  the  Petersburg 
mine.  Sometimes  the  secret  informant  is  rewarded  by  the 
confiscated  property  of  the  condemned.  Sometimes  the 
judges  demand  instructions  from  St.  Petersburg  before 
rendering  judgment.  Government  officials  publicly  boast 
that  the  tribunals  will  do  whatever  they  desire.  Even 
the  so-called  public  trials  could  not  be  attended  without 
a  permit  from  the  presiding  judge.  They  were  held  in 
small  apartments,  which  were  so  filled  with  witnesses  and 
officers  of  court  that  the  public  could  not  enter.  Then 
the  right  of  the  accused  to  a  public  trial  was  limited  to 
the  presence  of  three  witnesses,  and  later,  this  was  re- 
stricted to  one  person,  who  must  be  either  his  wife,  his 
parent,  or  his  child.  Newspapers  cannot  publish  their 
own  accounts  of  trials,  but  must  copy  the  official  reports. 
After  the  murder  of  the  Czar,  all  trials  were  heard  with 
closed  doors,  the  nearest  of  kin  to  the  accused  were  ex- 
cluded, and  even  the  inhabitants  of  the  next  dwelling  had 
often  no  suspicion  that  a  political  trial  was  going  on. 

But  a  trial  is  little  more  than  a  formality  ;  if  the  accused 
is  acquitted,  the  police  may  arrest  him  at  once  and  doom 
him  to  exile,  without  hearing,  upon  mere  "  administrative 
order." 

The  secret  council  of  ten  in  the  republic  of  Venice 
has  long  been  set  before  the  imagination  of  men  as  per- 


122  Slav  or  Saxon. 

haps  the  blackest  type  in  history  of  that  irresponsible  and 
arbitrary  tyranny  which  condemns  men  to  punishment 
upon  secret  charges  preferred  by  unknown  accusers  with- 
out process  of  law,  and  often  for  no  crime,  but  upon  rea- 
sons of  supposed  state  policy  alone ;  yet  there  is  in 
Russia  to-day  a  system  founded  upon  the  same  princi- 
ples, and  quite  as  repugnant  to  all  ideas  of  justice.  Men 
who  have  never  been  tried,  nor  perhaps  even  accused,  but 
who  are  simply  suspect td "by  the  police,  are  often,  without 
any  inquiry  whatever,  simply  as  a  matter  of  arbitrary 
will,  placed  under  so-called  "  police  supervision."  This, 
to  be  effective,  must  be  at  some  point  distant  from  the 
residence  of  the  man  suspected,  so  that  his  friends  and 
his  supposed  fellow-conspirators  can  have  no  access  to 
him  ;  hence  we  have  a  system  of  so-called  administrative 
exile,  by  which  any  person,  innocent  or  guilty,  may  be 
sent  at  the  pleasure  of  the  police  to  any  part  of  the 
great  Russian  Empire.  Until  recently  the  term  of  exile 
might  be  prolonged  indefinitely.  Indeed,  the  secret  po- 
lice considered  that  men  who  suffered  from  this  kind  of 
tyranny  were  not  apt  to  become  reconciled,  and  they  were 
not  often  permitted  to  return.  This  exile  frequently  fol- 
lows an  acquittal  in  court,  in  cases  where  no  proof  of 
guilt  can  be  procured.  This  system  was  not  formally 
recognized  by  the  code  until  1879,  after  an  attempt  was 
made  upon  the  Czar's  life.  At  that  time,  six  generals 
were  appointed  over  six  districts  of  the  empire,  with  the 
right  to  exile  by  administrative  order  "  all  persons  whose 
stay  might  be  considered  prejudicial  to  the  public  welfare, 
to  imprison  at  discretion,  to  suppress  or  suspend  any 


The  Present  Despotism.  123 

journal,  to  take  such  measures  as  might  be  necessary  for 
the  public  safety."  The  general  terms  of  their  authority 
were  in  language  almost  identical  with  the  power  given  to 
the  Roman  dictators,  to  see  to  it  "  that  the  common- 
wealth should  suffer  no  harm."  There  are  instances  of 
exile  without  proof  or  trial  to  the  desert  wastes  of  East- 
ern Siberia.  Men  have  been  banished  simply  because 
they  belonged  to  "  a  dangerous  family."  Men  have  been 
sent  to  the  frozen  North  because  the  police  have  confused 
their  names  with  those  of  others  whom  they  have  suspect- 
ed. Often  the  discovery  of  the  mistake  did  not  lead  to  a 
revocation.  We  have  instances  of  exile  where  the  order 
itself  declares  that  they  have  been  found  innocent  of  any 
crime. 

Witness  the  following : 

The  gendarmerie  department  of  Moscow  accused  Mr.  Isidor 
Goldsmith  and  his  wife  Sophia  of  having  come  to  Moscow  intent 
on  founding  a  central  revolutionary  committee.  After  a  mi- 
nute domiciliary  search  and  an  examination  for  the  discovery 
of  proofs,  the  charges  brought  against  the  before-mentioned 
persons  were  found  to  be  quite  without  justification.  Conse- 
quently the  Minister  of  the  Interior  and  the  Chief  of  the  Gen- 
darmerie decree  that  Isidor  Goldsmith  and  Sophia  his  wife  be 
transported  to  Archangelsk,  and  there  placed  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  local  police. 

The  exile  never  knows  his  accusers,  and  is  often  wholly 
ignorant  of  the  reason  for  which  he  is  transported.  These 
exiles  are  forbidden  to  teach,  lecture,  print,  photograph, 
practise  medicine,  sell  books  or  papers,  act  as  librarian,  or 
serve  in  the  government  employment,  such  occupations 


124  Slav  or  Saxon. 


being  considered  "  dangerous  to  the  State."  The  local 
government  may  veto  any  other  occupation  which  is  con- 
sidered undesirable.  The  exiles  are  allowed  six  to  eicrht 

o 

rubles  a  month  (about  $5.00)  for  their  support,  if  they 
are  of  noble  birth,  otherwise  only  half  of  that  amount. 
Many  of  them  find  it  scarcely  possible  to  support  life  in  a 
strange  country  with  these  restrictions.  All  their  letters 
are  examined  by  the  police.  Even  their  literary  societies 
are  broken  up.  It  is  dangerous  for  others  to  become  in- 
timate with  them.  The  report  of  an  able  Russian  officer 
to  the  government  contains  the  following  remarkable 
words  : 

From  the  experience  of  past  years,  and  my  own  personal 
observation,  I  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  administra- 
tive exile  for  political  causes  tends  rather  to  exasperate  a  man 
and  infect  him  with  perverse  ideas,  than  to  correct  him  (cor- 
rection being  the  officially  declared  object  of  exile).  The 
change  from  a  life  of  ease  to  a  life  of  privation,  from  life  in 
the  bosom  of  society  to  separation  from  all  society,  from  an 
activity  more  or  less  active  to  an  enforced  inaction, — all  this 
produces  an  effect  so  disastrous  that  often,  especially  of  late, 
there  have  occurred  among  the  exiles  cases  of  madness,  of  sui- 
cide, and  attempted  suicide. 

Men  have  been  exiled  in  this  manner  and  sent  on  foot 
with  gangs  of  malefactors  to  the  country  of  the  Yakoutes, 
savages  of  Eastern  Siberia,  where  they  must  live  in  the 
filthy  and  wretched  huts  of  these  half-naked  barbarians, 
whose  language  they  cannot  speak,  whose  food  they  can- 
not eat.  Few  men  survive  this  transportation  more  than 
a  few  years. 


The  Present  Despotism.  125 

Leroy-Beaulieu  thus  speaks  of  this  system  of  exile  by 
order  of  the  Police  of  State  : 

No  engine  of  despotism,  not  even,  perhaps,  the  Spanish 
Inquisition,  has  cut  down  so  many  human  beings  and  crushed 
so  many  lives,  since  none  has  ever  acted  more  discreetly  and 
with  less  noise.  There  is  no  list  of  martyrs  so  long  as  that 
of  this  State  Chancellery.  The  number  of  its  victims,  of 
every  rank,  of  every  age,  of  both  sexes,  is  the  harder  to 
estimate,  since,  in  place  of  public  autos-da-fe,  it  surrounded 
them  almost  always  with  mystery,  and  hid  them  in  the  silent 
snows  of  Siberia,  and  being  able  to  get  rid  of  them  without 
having  blood  upon  its  hands,  and  without  hearing  their  cries, 
it  was  itself  so  much  the  less  scrupulous  and  compassionate. 

The  State  Police  has  remained  mistress  of  the  right  to  im- 
prison, to  bury,  to  banish  whomsoever  it  desires.  Under 
Alexander  III.,  as  under  Alexander  II.,  the  High  Police  remains 
sovereign,  independent  of  justice  and  the  courts,  and  has  no 
account  to  render,  except  to  its  chief  or  to  the  Emperor. 

A  recent  law  provides  that  administrative  exile  shall 
not  exceed  five  years,  and  that  it  must  be  approved  by  a 
commission  composed  of  two  delegates  from  the  Ministry 
of  the  Interior  and  two  from  the  Ministry  of  Justice. 
This  commission  may,  if  they  choose,  ask  the  accused  to 
appear  and  defend  himself.  As  a  guaranty  for  liberty 
this  discretionary  formality  is  absolutely  illusory.  The 
sum-total  of  injustice  and  misery  will  not  be  materially 
lessened  in  any  such  way. 

But  even  where  there  has  been  a  trial  by  the  courts, 
very  little  is  settled  by  the  judgment.  The  fatal  point  is, 
after  conviction,  to  know  where  the  condemned  shall  go, 


126  Slav  or  Saxon. 

for  there  is  all  the  difference  in  the  world  between  being 
sent  to  the  mines  of  Siberia  and  to  the  fortresses  of 
Russia.  The  friends  of  the  condemned  importune  the 
government  to  send  him  to  Siberia.  His  wife,  his 
mother,  or  his  betrothed  make  long  journeys  to  St. 
Petersburg  and  clamor  everywhere  for  this  mitigation  of 
sentence,  and  the  condemned  is  happy  indeed  if  he  is  sent 
to  that  terrible  land  of  chains  and  ice.  One  would  think 
it  was  hard  enough  to  be  condemned  to  labor  in  the 
mines,  yet  the  Siberian  prisoner  thinks  it  a  privilege,  for 
the  hardest  toil  is  a  lighter  punishment  than  solitary  con- 
finement within  the  walls  of  a  prison.  The  terms  of  im- 
prisonment vary  from  twenty  to  thirty-five  years.  Politi- 
cal prisoners  are  treated  with  greater  severity  than  other 
convicts.  Other  prisons  have  outer  walls  upon  three  sides 
only,  and  front  upon  the  street ;  political  prisons  are  built 
in  the  middle  of  a  court,  surrounded  on  every  side  by- 
walls.  Vivid  accounts  are  given  of  the  floggings  and  out- 
rages to  which  the  prisoners,  women  as  well  as  men,  are 
subjected.  As  one  of  them  expressed  it :  "  We  are  beaten 
twice  a  day  and  fed  once." 

But  these  prisons,  in4  a  land  where  the  cold  is  sixty 
degrees  below  zero,  are  deemed  a  paradise  to  the  great 
prisons  of  Russia,  in  which  political  offenders  are  confined 
as  in  a  living  tomb.  The  best  among  the  latter  is  the 
central  prison,  at  Novo  Belgorod.  This  is  a  great  peni- 
tentiary for  the  worst  grade  of  malefactors  as  well  as 
political  convicts.  The  common  criminals  live  and  work 
together,  but  the  political  offenders  are  doomed  to  soli- 
tary confinement.  Each  lives  alone  in  silence  in  his  little 


The  Present  Despotism.  127 

cell.  Even  their  exercise  is  taken  separately,  so  that  they 
cannot  meet.  The  brigands  and  murderers  confined  with 
them  are  treated  with  greater  consideration.  In  July, 
1878,  the  political  prisoners  refused  to  eat,  because  they 
were  denied  the  right  to  work  in  the  prison  and  in  the 
workshops  with  the  rest.  For  eight  days  they  tasted 
nothing,  and  became  so  weak  that  they  could  not  rise 
from  their  beds,  until  the  governor-general  promised  com- 
pliance with  their  request,  which  promise  he  afterwards 
violated.  Yet  these  men  had  been  guilty  of  nothing  but 
the  simple  propagation  of  the  doctrines  of  socialism. 
There  had  been  no  violence  nor  breach  of  law  other  than 
teaching  this  heresy.  These  prisoners,  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  the  prison,  were  put  in  irons  on  the  slightest  pre- 
tence, or  thrown  into  the  punishment  cells,  cages  so  small 
that  men  cannot  stand  in  them,  or  deprived  of  books  at 
the  caprice  of  their  brutal  jailors,  and  beds  taken  away 
even  from  the  sick.  Once,  when  a  prisoner  who  had 
served  his  probation  term  was  put  in  irons  against  the 
rules  of  the  prison,  a  petition  was  sent  to  the  governor- 
general,  who,  in  his  decision,  admitted  that  the  director 
had  no  right  to  put  the  prisoner  in  irons,  but,  neverthe- 
less, ordered  all  the  prisoners  who  had  signed  the  petition 
to  be  manacled,  on  the  ground  that  they  had  insulted  the 
director  by  their  complaint,  and  he  gave  to  each  of  them 
from  one  to  three  days  in  the  black  hole.  The  men  impris- 
oned at  Novo  Belgorod  had  done  nothing  but  distribute 
socialistic  pamphlets.  When  the  work  of  nihilism  went 
to  greater  lengths,  and  violence  was  resorted  to,  these 
prisoners,  who  were  wholly  innocent,  were  made  to  feel 


128  Slav  or  Saxon . 

the  consequences.     Their  books  were  taken  away  from 
them,  they  were  put  in  irons,  their  relatives  were  exiled 
to  distant  provinces  and  sent  to  Siberia ;  even  the  ven- 
tilating orifices   of  their   cells   were   closed,  so  that  they 
could  scarcely  breathe.     Of  young  men  in  the  prime  of 
life,   many   died.      Within    four   years,  out    of    fourteen 
prisoners  confined  in  the  rear  cells  to  the  right,  five  went 
mad,  and  filled   the  prison   with  their  howlings.     Some 
died  insane  in  their  cells.     Imagine  the   forebodings  of 
their  companions,  who  heard  their  cries  and  felt  the  same 
fate  impending  over  themselves.     These  irresponsible  be- 
ings were  kicked  and  thrown  down,  and  underwent  all  the 
penalties  imposed  on  the  sane  for  disobedience.    Such  are 
the  terrible  consequences  of   this  solitary  confinement. 
But  this  prison  is  used  only  for  lighter  punishment,  for 
those  who  have  not   been  guilty  of  crimes  of  violence. 
Those  charged  with  heavier  offences  are  immured  within 
the  walls   of   Schliisselberg,  or  in    the    fortress  of  Peter 
and  Paul.  To  what  doom  they  are  condemned  in  the  first 
of  these  great  silent  tombs,  no  one  knows,  for  the  voice 
of  those  who  are  buried  there  has  never  reached  the  out- 
side world.    For  those  who  pass  within  its  accursed  walls, 
the  superscription  of  the  infernal  gates  is  written  thereon  : 
"  All  hope  abandon,  ye  who  enter  here."     Their  destiny- 
is   fixed   forever;  there  is  no  hope,  no  word,  no  return. 
But    the    fortress    of  Peter  and  Paul,   situated,   as  it  is, 
in  the  very  capital  of  the  nation,  cannot  be  so  completely 
isolated.      This  is  the  great  Bastile  of  Russia.      It  has  its 
traditions  like  that  of  the  Man  in  the  Iron  Mask.     This 
fortress  is  under  military  government,  every  attendant  is 


The  Present  Despotism.  129 

a  soldier,  and  the  prisoners  are  forbidden  to  speak,  not 
only  to  each  other,  but  to  their  jailers.  The  jailers  visit 
their  cells  in  pairs  to  prevent  collusion.  They  are  im- 
mured in  alternate  cells,  so  that  they  may  not  communi- 
cate with  each  other  by  raps  or  signals.  Spies  are  placed 
in  the  intervening  chambers,  to  extract  testimony  which 
cannot  be  otherwise  secured.  Men  have  been  confined  in 
this  fortress  many  years  and  no  one  knew  where  they 
were.  The  identity  of  these  prisoners  is  concealed  by  a 
simple  numeral,  and  their  names  are  often  unknown  to 
the  jailers  who  attend  them. 

But  there  is  always  a  lowest  depth,  and  in  the  place  of  tor- 
ment, which  this  fortress  in  these  latter  days  has  become,  a 
dungeon-house,  a  human  slaughter-house  rather,  has  recently 
been  contrived,  the  horrors  of  which  surpass  any  thing  that 
Englishmen  can  imagine.  This  is  the  Troubetzkoi  ravelin. 
It  is  not  a  preventive  prison  where  suspected  people  await 
judgment,  but  a  penitential  gaol,  where  convicts  condemned 
for  life  or  very  long  terms  are  confined  and  punished  ;  a  sort 
of  bagnio,  in  which  are  confined  those  for  whom  the  bagnios 
of  Siberia  or  the  cells  of  ,the  central  prison  are  not  considered 
sufficiently  severe.  Hither,  too,  were  sent  the  Terrorists, 
whom  their  great  numbers  hindered  from  being  hanged.  Con- 
verted to  its  present  purpose  towards  the  end  of  1881,  or 
about  the  beginning  of  1882,  this  dungeon  within  a  dungeon 
has  from  the  first  been  placed  under  the  most  rigorous  super- 
vision, and  strict  precautions  have  been  taken  to  prevent  any 
knowledge  of  what  goes  on  in  its  dark  interior  from  coming  to 
light.  Three  letters  from  prisoners  have,  nevertheless,  passed 
the  barriers. 


130  Slav  or  Saxon. 

The  writer  of  one  of  these  was  compelled  to  use  his 
own  blood,  which  (in  the  absence  of  a  knife)  he  obtained 
by  biting  his  flesh. 

Stepniak  thus  reproduces  his  account : 

When  your  eyes  have  become  accustomed  to  the  obscurity, 
you  perceive  that  you  are  a  tenant  of  a  cell  a  few  paces  wide 
and  long.  In  one  corner  is  a  bed  of  straw,  with  a  woollen 
counterpane — as  thin  as  paper  ; — nothing  else.  At  the  foot  of 
the  bed  stands  a  high  wooden  pail  with  a  cover.  This  is  the 
parashka,  which  later  on  will  poison  you  with  foul  stenches. 
For  the  prisoners  of  the  Troubetzkoi  bastion  are  not  allowed 
to  leave  their  cells  for  any  purpose  whatever,  either  night  or 
day  (except  for  the  regulation  exercise),  and  the  parashka  is 
often  left  unemptied  for  days  together.  You  are  thus  obliged 
to  live,  sleep,  eat,  and  drink  in  an  atmosphere  reeking  with 
corruption  and  fatal  to  health.  ...  By  the  rules  of  the 
Troubetzkoi  ravelin  prisoners  are  forbidden  the  possession  cf 
any  object  whatever  not  given  to  them  by  the  administration, 
and  as  the  administration  gives  neither  tea  nor  sugar,  neither 
brush  nor  comb  nor  soap,  you  cannot  have  them.  .  . 

To  the  doomed  captive  of  the  Troubetzkoi — doomed  to  a 
fate  worse  than  death — are  interdicted  books  of  every  sort. 
"  They  may  not  read  even  the  Bible,"  says  the  letter.     .     .     . 

The  flour  is  always  bad,  the  meat  seldom  fresh.  In  order 
to  make  the  bread  weigh  heavier,  it  is  so  insufficiently  baked, 
that  even  the  crust  is  hardly  eatable,  and  when  the  inside  of  c. 
loaf  is  thrown  against  the  wall  it  sticks  there  like  mortar. 

The  prison  is  no  better  warmed  than  the  prisoners  are  fed, 
a  terrible  hardship  at  sixty  degrees  of  north  latitude  in  the 
winter-time.  The  cells  are  always  cold,  the  walls  always  damp. 
When  the  inspector  makes  his  rounds  he  never  takes  off  his 


The  Present  Despotism.  1 3 1 

fur  pelisse.  The  prisoners,  who  have  no  furs,  shiver  even  in 
their  beds,  and  all  through  the  long  winter  their  hands  and 
feet  feel  like  lumps  of  ice.  Even  in  summer  the  prisoners 
are  not  in  much  better  plight,  for  during  the  warm  months,  St. 
Petersburg,  built  on  a  marsh,  is  more  unhealthy  than  at  any 
other  time.  .  .  .  The  most  robust  are  unable  to  resist  the 
unwholesome  influence  to  which  they  are  exposed.  .  .  . 

"  Oh,  if  you  could  see  our  sick !  "  exclaims  the  writer 
of  the  blood-written  letter.  "  A  year  ago  they  were  young, 
healthy,  and  robust  ;  now  they  are  bowed  and  decrepit  old 
men,  hardly  able  to  walk.  Several  of  them  cannot  rise  from 
their  beds.  Covered  with  vermin  and  eaten  up  with  scurvy, 
they  emit  an  odor  like  that  of  a  corpse."  .  .  . 

"  No  mercy  is  shown  even  to  the  mad,"  says  another  of  the 
letters,  "  and  you  may  imagine  how  many  such  there  are  in  our 
Golgotha.  They  are  not  sent  to  any  asylum,  but  shut  up  in 
their  cells  and  kept  in  order  with  whip  and  scourge.  .  .  . 

"  Under  the  first  floor,  and  below  the  level  of  the  Neva,  are 
other  cells  far  worse  than  those  I  have  described,— real  under- 
ground vaults,  dark  at  noonday  and  infested  with  loathsome 
vermin.  .  .  .  The  small  windows  are  on  a  level  with  the 
river,  which  overflows  them  when  the  Neva  rises.  The  thick 
iron  bars  of  the  grating,  covered  with  dirt,  shut  out  most  of 
the  little  light  that  else  might  filter  through  these  holes.  If  the 
rays  of  the  sun  never  enter  the  cells  of  the  upper  floor,  it  may 
easily  be  imagined  what  darkness  reigns  below.  The  walls  are 
mouldering,  and  dirty  water  continually  drops  from  them.  But 
most  terrible  are  the  rats.  In  the  brick  floors  large  holes  fiave 
been  left  open  for  the  rats  to  pass  through.  I  express  myself  thus 
intentionally.  Nothing  would  be  easier  than  to  block  up  these 
holes,  and  yet  the  reiterated  demands  of  the  prisoners  have 
always  been  passed  by  unnoticed,  so  that  the  rats  enter  by 


132  Slav  or  Saxon. 

scores,  try  to  climb  upon  the  beds  and  bite  the  prisoners.  It 
is  in  these  hideous  dungeons  that  the  condemned  to  death 
spend  their  last  hours.  Kviatkovsky,  Presniakoff,  Soukanoff, 
passed  their  last  nights  here.  At  the  present  moment,  among 
others,  there  is  a  woman  with  a  little  child  at  her  breast.  This 
is  Jakimova.  Night  and  day  she  watches  over  her  babe  lest 
he  should  be  devoured  by  rats."  .  .  . 

From  October  25  to  30,  1880,  there  were  tried  at  St. 
Petersburg  sixteen  Terrrorists,  six  of  whom  were  condemned 
to  death  and  eight  to  hard  labor  for  different  terms.  Two  of 
the  former  were  executed  and  four  reprieved.  The  greater 
part  of  these  young  and  vigorous  men  (including  those  who 
were  sentenced  to  hard  labor)  either  died  or  went  mad  before 
they  had  been  in  the  fortress  two  years.  .  .  . 

On  July  26,  1883,  there  arrived  at  Moscow  a  number  of 
political  convicts  of  both  sexes  deported  to  Siberia,  who  had 
been  imprisoned  for  two  years  and  less  in  the  fortress  of  Peter 
and  Paul.  .  .  .  Among  these  were  Ignat  Voloshenko, 
eaten  by  scurvy,  and  torn  by  convulsions — dying.  .  .  . 
Alexander  Pribylev,  whom  long  abstention  from  food  and  com- 
plete derangement  of  the  nervous  system  had  so  reduced  in 
strength  that  he  could  not  stand,  and  frequently  fainted.  .  .  . 
Fomin  (a  former  military  officer,  sentenced  for  life),  whom,  for 
nearly  two  hours,  several  doctors  tried  in  vain  to  bring  around. 
It  was  not  until  evening  that  he  was  sufficiently  restored  to  re- 
sume his  journey.  .  .  .  Paul  Orlov,  only  twenty-seven  years  of 
age,  bent'like  an  old  man,  and  one  of  his  feet  so  crippled  that 
he  could  scarcely  walk.  He  had  scurvy  in  its  most  terrible 
shape,  blood  was  continually  oozing  from  his  gums  and  flowing 
from  his  mouth.  .  .  .  Tatiana  Lebedeva,  in  the  last  stage 
of  consumption  and  so  eaten  up  with  scurvy  that  her  teeth 
were  gone,  and  the  flesh  had  fallen  away,  leaving  her  jaw-bones 


The  Present  Despotism.  133 

bare.     .     .     .     Yakimova,   holding  in  her  arms  an   eighteen- 
months-old  babe,  born  in  the  Troubetzkui  ravelin. 

The  effect  of  this  crushing  despotism  on  the  natural 
life  of  Russia  is  thus  graphically  stated  by  Stepniak. 

Despotism  has  stricken  with  sterility  the  high  hopes  to  which 
the  splendid  awakening  of  the  first  half  of  the  century  gave 
birth.  Mediocrity  reigns  supreme.  ...  All  the  leaders 
of  our  zemstvos,  modest  as  are  their  functions,  belong  to  an 
older  generation.  The  living  forces  of  later  generations  have 
been  buried  by  the  government  in  Siberian  snows  and  Esqui- 
maux villages.  It  is  worse  than  the  pest. '  A  pest  comes  and 
goes  ;  but  the  government  has  oppressed  the  country  for 
twenty  years,  and  may  go  on  oppressing  it  for  who  knows  how 
many  years  longer.  The  pest  kills  indiscriminately,  but  the 
present  regime  chooses  its  victims  from  the  flower  of  the  na- 
tion, taking  all  on  whom  depend  its  future  and  glory.  It  is 
not  a  political  party  whom  they  crush  ;  it  is  a  nation  of  a  hun- 
dred millions  whom  they  stifle. 

This  is  what  is  done  in  Russia  under  the  Czars  ;  this  is  the 
price  at  which  the  government  buys  its  miserable  existence. 

One  would  think  that  the  more  intelligent  people  of 
Russia  would  abandon  a  country  thus  infected  ;  but  even 
this  poor  privilege  is  denied  them  ;  they  cannot  lawfully 
leave  the  empire,  nor  even  their  own  town,  without  the 
consent'  of  their  government. 

Every  Russian  found  without  a  passport  is  an  outlaw, 
to  be  hunted  down  by  the  authorities. 

In  1879  the  police  of  Tiflis,  having  received  an  order  to  ar- 
rest for  expulsion  all  persons  without  passports  living  in  the 


1 34  Slav  or  Saxon. 

city,  there  was  a  general  flight  among  workmen,  small  mer- 
chants, coachmen,  and  servants,  so  that  from  lack  of  hands  a 
thrifty  population  suddenly  found  itself  in  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty. Instead  of  heeding  the  demands  of  the  police,  those  in- 
terested fled  by  thousands,  so  as  not  to  be  brought  back  to 
their  homes  by  chain-gangs,  as  the  law  prescribed.  Money 
only  could  obtain  relief  from  the  hardships  of  the  law. 

Political  trials  have  shown  that  many  unfortunates  have  been 
cast  into  the  party  of  anarchy  and  revolution  by  the  lack  of  a 
passport  or  the  loss  of  their  papers.  * 

The  government  always  prohibits  permanent  emigration. 
Anywhere  the  Russian  may  go  he  can  never  lose  his  citizen- 
ship. Russia  does  not  admit  the  right  of  any  subject  to 
abandon  his  allegiance,  and  will  not  permit  any  naturali- 
zation elsewhere  to  interfere  with  her  claims  upon  his 
obedience. 

No  man  with  Anglo-Saxon  instincts  can  read  this  story 
but  his  blood  will  boil  at  the  recital  of  these  outrages.  It 
is  time  for  the  Russian  autocracy  to  die. 

1  Leroy-Beaulieu. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CONCLUSION. 

THE  outcome  of  the  struggle  between  England  and 
Russia  will  depend  upon  two  things:  first,  how  fast  the 
forces  of  disintegration  at  work  in  the  British  Empire  go 
on,  and  how  far  they  extend  ;  second,  upon  the  political 
and  social  changes  in  Russia,  which  may  withdraw  the 
motive  for  its  aggressions.  The  danger  is  not  immediate  ; 
but  it  is  none  the  less  serious  on  that  account.  Vambery 
has  shown  that  while  Russia  could  invade  India  success- 
fully, yet  at  present  she  could  not  maintain  herself  for 
any  great  length  of  time  in  Hindostan  against  the  power 
of  England.  But  looking  beyond  this,  it  is  probable  that 
the  day  will  come  when  the  toiling  masses  of  England, 
who  are  to  control  its  policy  hereafter,  will  not  be  willing 
to  make  the  necessary  sacrifices  to  keep  a  distant  empire, 
from  which  they  have  so  little  to  gain.  The  ulterior 
menace  of  Russian  supremacy  to  the  civilization  of  Eu- 
rope is  too  distant  a  thing  to  give  them  any  great  con- 
cern. It  may  be  said  that  the  nations  of  Western  Europe 
will  unite  when  Russian  aggressions  become  too  danger- 
ous, and  that  Russia  cannot  resist  their  united  power. 
This  would  seem  true ;  yet  if  the  diplomacy  of  the  Czar 

135 


1 36  Slav  or  Saxon. 

is  skilful  enough  to  avoid  collisions  with  the  immediate 
interests  of  other  nations  ;  if  the  autocrat  shall  con- 
fine his  conquests  to  Asia,  proceeding  gradually  and 
quietly,  like  his  predecessors,  against  nations  in  which  the 
powers  of  Western  Europe  have  no  special  interest,  the 
remote  danger  of  Russian  supremacy  may  not  be  sufficient 
to  arouse  united  resistance.  Except  in  her  designs  upon 
the  Balkan  peninsula,  Russian  aggressions  have  not 
awakened  any  united  opposition  up  to  the  present  time. 
The  jealousies  and  dissensions  of  the  other  great  powers 
among  themselves,  and  their  direct  encroachments  upon 
each  other,  are  more  likely  to  arouse  them  to  immediate 
action,  than  the  distant  danger  by  which  they  are  menaced 
from  the  East.  To-day  Russia  can  find  in  France  an 
ally  upon  whom  she  can  depend  whenever  threatened 
by  Germany  and  Austria.  But  even  if  European  diplo- 
macy should  be  wise  enough  to  demand  a  halt  in  the 
march  of  Russian  conquest,  the  stoppage  would  be  only 
for  a  limited  period.  Russia  would  probably  yield,  and 
remain  quiet  for  a  time,  only  to  move  on  more  stealthily 
when  the  pressure  should  be  removed,  and  trouble  should 
spring  up  between  her  adversaries.  She  thus  yielded  to 
the  dictates  of  prudence  in  the  late  Bulgarian  affair  ;  but 
no  one  believes  that  she  has  withdrawn  permanently 
from  the  Balkans.  Even  should  she  suffer  defeat,  as  she 
did  in  the  Crimean  War  ;  even  should  she  be  compelled  to 
surrender  some  small  portion  of  her  territory,  this  would 
still  be  nothing  more  than  a  temporary  check.  The  fact 
that  Russia,  as  a  whole,  can  never  be  conquered,  gives  her 
practical  impunity,  so  long  as  her  aim  remains  constant, 


Conclusion.  137 

and  the  great  mass  of  her  people  continue  to  be  utterly 
subservient  to  the  will  of  their  master.  Unless  the  policy 
of  England  shall  also  remain  constant,  unless  the  English 
people  shall  be  determined  through  a  long  course  of 
years,  perhaps  generations,  to  maintain  at  any  sacrifice 
their  present  status  in  Asia,  the  advance  of  Russia  can 
only  be  checked  by  forces  from  within  the  empire  of 
the  Czars.  This  thing  the  people  of  Great  Britain  will 
not  do.  The  force  which  must  stay  the  stream  of  con- 
quest in  the  case  of  Russia,  as  in  the  case  of  ancient 
Rome,  must  have  its  origin  within  the  empire ;  and  the 
next  problem  to  consider  is,  what  are  the  probabilities  of  a 
change  which  shall  accomplish  this  result? 

It  is  easy  to  say  that  the  social  conditions  of  Russia 
cannot  remain  as  they  are  now;  that  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  cannot  be  kept  in  ignorance  indefinitely  ;  that  the 
autocracy  will  not  continue  to  be  their  ideal  of  govern- 
ment ;  that  the  evils  of  the  despotism  will  find  their  remedy, 
and  that  the  motive  which  impels  Russia  to  conquest  will 
gradually  disappear  of  itself.  These  things  are  not  with- 
out an  element  of  truth.  It  seems  impossible  that  a  great 
empire  in  such  close  proximity  to  the  liberty  and  civiliza- 
tion of  the  nineteenth  century  can  remain  much  longer 
subject  to  an  Asiatic  despotism,  but  we  must  not  forget 
that  nine  tenths  of  the  entire  population  of  Russia  consist 
of  a  peasantry  wholly  ignorant,  living  in  little  communities, 
farming  their  land  in  common,  and  representing  a  type  of 
society  thousands  of  years  old  ;  that  habits  of  submission 
and  obedience  form  part  of  the  fibre  of  their  existence; 
that  over  them  the  power  of  the  Czar,  moral  as  well  as 


138  Slav  or  Saxon. 

t 
physical,  has  never  been  relaxed  a  particle.     The  central 

government,  controlling  all  possibilities  of  education,  as 
well  as  all  avenues  of  communication  between  them,  holds 
them  as  in  a  vise ;  no  spontaneous  movement  toward 
liberty  can  be  looked  for  from  this  class ;  it  is  from  the 
small  number  of  the  educated  subjects  of  the  Czar,  that 
the  hopes  of  the  future  betterment  of  the  condition  of 
Russia  must  come.  These  men  belong  mostly  to  the  no- 
bility. There  is  hardly  such  a  thing  in  Russia  as  a  middle 
class.  The  merchants  of  the  towns,  comparatively  few  in 
number,  ignorant,  dishonest,  conservative,  are  not  to-day 
an  important  factor  in  Russian  social  or  political  life  ; 
they  will  perhaps  grow  some,  both  in  numbers  and  intelli- 
gence, but  Russia  is  almost  exclusively  an  agricultural 
country,  and  it  will  be  long  before  the  inhabitants  of  the 
cities  will  have  an  influence  which  will  correspond  with 
that  of  the  merchant  or  burgher  class  of  other  European 
countries.  The  nobility  of  Russia,  however,  is  far  greater  in 
numbers  than  elsewhere,  and  in  the  emancipation  of  the 
serfs,  as  well  as  since  that  time,  it  has  shown  a  spirit  of  dis- 
interestedness and  self-sacrifice,  such  as  is  rarely  met  with 
in  history.  Class  spirit,  in  Russia,  is  almost  unknown.  No- 
bles and  peasants  sit  together  in  the  local  assemblies,  and 
act  in  great  harmony.  At  the  time  of  the  emancipation, 
many  nobles  worked  in  opposition  to  the  interests  of  their 
class.  This  disinterestedness  is  particularly  marked  in 
the  case  of  the  smaller  nobility.  Many  of  these  have 
joined  the  ranks  of  the  revolutionists,  and  are  devoting 
their  lives  to  the  cause  of  social  and  political  liberty  and 
equality.  It  is  from  this  educated  class  that  the  political 


Conclusion.  1 39 

redemption  of  Russia  must  come.  The  policy  of  the 
present  Czar  has  been  conservative  and  even  reactionary. 
Many  of  the  reforms  instituted  by  his  predecessor  have 
been  curtailed  and  abrogated  by  his  sterner  and  more 
illiberal  system.  This  has  been  attributed  to  the  plots  of 
the  Nihilists,  and  it  is  said  that  the  revolutionists  are  per- 
petuating instead  of  destroying  the  despotism  of  which 
they  complain,  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  re- 
actionary tendencies  of  Alexander  II.  began  some  time 
before  any  attempts  were  made  upon  his  life,  or  before 
any  revolution  was  organized  against  his  government. 
There  have  been  two  courses  only  open  to  the  Russian 
who  desired  to  better  the  condition  of  his  government. 
He  must  either  trust  to  the  caprices  of  the  autocrat  who 
happens  to  rule,  or  he  must  endeavor  to  destroy  the 
autocracy.  From  the  first  course  he  cannot  hope  for  per- 
manent reform,  and  the  second  course  involves  revolution. 
The  Czar  will  not  grant  a  constitution.  He  will  not  per- 
mit any  agitation  in  favor  of  a  constitution.  Even  peti- 
tions presented  for  such  a  purpose  are  sternly  rebuked 
and  their  authors  punished.  The  reformer  cannot  propa- 
gate his  ideas  where  they  differ  from  the  policy  of  the 
government ;  the  only  alternatives  are  silence  and  armed 
rebellion.  Prudence  may  counsel  silence,  but  patriotism 
demands  reform  at  any  cost.  So  the  bolder  spirits  aim  at 
revolution.  Where  population  is  so  scattered,  and  the 
central  power  is  omnipotent,  rebellion  cannot  take  the 
form  of  a  popular  uprising.  The  insurgents  must  act  in 
secret,  and  instruments  which  fill  the  world  with  horror 
are  the  only  means  at  their  disposal.  It  has  not  been  in- 


14°  Slav  or  Saxon. 

tended  to  justify  the  use  of  these,  but  only  to  point  out 
the  circumstances  which  have  led  to  their  adoption  by  men 
who,  under  other  conditions,  would  be  regarded  as  patriots 
and  reformers  ;  men  who  certainly  have  no  personal  aims 
sufficient  to  justify  them  in  incurring  the  terrible  penalties 
prescribed  by  the  Russian  law. 

It  is  hard  for  us,  who  live  in  a  land  where  thought  is  not 
repressed,  where  even  conduct  is  only  limited  when  it 
does  direct  harm  to  our  fellow-creatures,  to  understand  the 
terrible  earnestness  of  the  reformer  when  he  is  not  per- 
mitted to  speak  the  thought  that  is  within  him.  It  is 
hard  for  us  to  understand  the  depth  of  religious  enthu- 
siasm in  past  times,  when  men  submitted  to  excrucia- 
ting tortures  rather  than  disavow  some  dogma  which 
seems  now  too  trivial  to  command  our  serious  thought. 
But  could  we  have  lived  in  a  time  when  belief  in  Chris- 
tianity involved  disgrace,  imprisonment,  and  death,  or  at  a 
time  when  the  denial  of  the  spiritual  authority  of  the 
Roman  hierarchy  was  punished  by  torture  and  the  stake, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  some  who  look  now  upon  these 
things  in  a  calm,  philosophical  way,  would  have  been 
roused  to  an  enthusiasm  capable  of  submitting  to  any 
thing  rather  than  modify  or  disavow  their  belief.  There 
is  no  limit  to  the  power  of  endurance  of  a  mind  exalted 
by  a  principle  which  it  deems  great. 

In  like  manner,  devotion  to  liberty  is  most  intense  and 
consuming  where  the  expression  of  it  is  checked  by  the 
iron  hand  of  a  military  despotism. 

Brightest  in  dungeons,  Liberty,  them  art, 
For  there  thy  habitation  is  the  heart, — 
The  heart  which  love  of  thee  alone  can  bind. 


Conclusion.  141 

The  Russian  revolutionist  does  not  represent  the  lowest 
type  of  society  in  that  Empire.  It  is  the  men  who  are 
largely  favored  by  the  existing  order  of  things  who  have 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  revolution,  and  they  do  it,  not 
so  much  for  themselves,  as  for  the  sake  of  the  fifty  millions 
of  poor  ignorant  peasants  whose  wrongs  would  otherwise 
remain  without  a  voice.  They  represent,  like  John  Brown, 
that  type  of  manhood  which  seeks  by  questionable  means, 
not  its  own  advantage,  but  the  liberation  of  oppressed 
humanity. 

Stepniak  portrays  in  words  of  fire  the  thought  of  a 
young  man  filled  with  emotion  at  the  scenes  around 
him  : 

There  falls  upon  his  ear  the  plaintive  song  of  the  Russian 
peasant  ;  all  wailing  and  lamentation,  in  which  so  many  ages  of 
suffering  seem  concentrated.  His  squalid  misery  ;  his  whole  life 
stands  forth  full  of  sorrow,  of  suffering,  of  outrage.  Look  at  him, 
exhausted  by  hunger,  broken  down  by  toil,  the  eternal  slave 
of  the  privileged  classes,  working  without  pause,  without  hope 
of  redemption ;  for  the  Government  purposely  keeps  him 
ignorant,  and  every  one  robs  him,  every  one  tramples  on  him, 
and  no  one  stretches  out  a  hand  to  assist  him.  No  one  ?  Not 
so.  The  young  man  knows  now  "  what  to  do."  He  will 
stretch  forth  his  hand.  He  will  tell  the  peasant  how  to  free 
himself  and  be  happy.  His  heart  throbs  for  this  poor  sufferer, 
who  can  only  weep.  The  flush  of  enthusiasm  mounts  to  his 
brow,  and  with  burning  glance  he  takes  in  his  heart  a  solemn 
oath  to  consecrate  all  his  life,  all  his  strength,  all  his  thoughts, 
to  the  liberation  of  this  population,  which  drains  its  life  blood 
in  order  that  he,  the  favored  son  of  privilege,  may  live  at  his 
ease,  study,  and  instruct  himself. 


142  Slav  or  Saxon. 

Even  in  the  dungeon  this  enthusiasm  does  not  desert 
him.  One  of  the  prisoners,  a  friend  of  Stepniak  from 
boyhood,  his  fellow-worker  in  the  struggle,  who  had  long 
suffered  the  punishments  before  described  in  the  depths 
of  the  Troubetzkoi  ravelin,  from  which  he  was  transferred 
to  the  living  tomb  of  Schliisselberg,  wrote  upon  the  eve 
of  his  departure  this  sublime  farewell :  "  Fight  on  till  the 
victory  is  won  ;  for  me  henceforth  there  is  but  one  measure — 
the  more  they  torment  me  in  my  prison  the  better  is  it 
with  the  struggle." 

What  are  the  purposes  of  the  Nihilists  ?  What  do  they 
ask  ?  Their  petition  of  rights  is  concisely  embodied  in 
the  declaration  of  their  Executive  Committee,  made  to 
the  present  Czar  shortly  after  his  accession. 

It  demands  : — 

A  general  amnesty  for  all  political  offenders  ;  the  con- 
vocation of  the  representatives  of  the  whole  of  the  people, 
for  the  examination  of  the  best  forms  of  social  and  political 
life,  according  to  the  wants  and  desires  of  the  people  ;  the 
elections  to  take  place  under  the  following  conditions  : 

First,  the  deputies  shall  be  chosen  by  all  classes 
without  distinction,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  in- 
habitants. 

Second,,  there  shall  be  no  restriction  of  any  kind  upon 
electors  or  deputies. 

Third,  the  elections  and  the  electoral  agitation  shall  be 
perfectly  free.  The  Government,  to  grant  as  provisional 
regulations,  until  the  convocation  of  the  popular  assem- 
blies : 

(a)  Complete  freedom  of  the  press. 


Conclusion .  143 

(b)  Complete  freedom  of  speech. 

(c)  Complete  freedom  of  public  meeting. 

(d)  Complete  freedom  of  electoral  addresses. 

"  These,"  says  the  Committee,  u  are  the  only  means  by  which 
Russia  can  enter  upon  the  path  of  peaceful  and  regular  de- 
velopment. We  solemnly  declare,  before  the  country,  and 
before  the  whole  world,  that  our  party  will  submit  uncondition- 
ally to  the  National  Assembly  which  meets  upon  the  basis  of 
the  above  conditions,  and  will  offer  no  opposition  to  the  Gov- 
ernment which  the  National  Assembly  may  sanction." 

There  is  not  a  single  one  of  these  demands  which 
Americans  do  not  recognize  as  fundamentally  just.  Would 
we  be  content  with  any  thing  less  ?  Considering  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  degradation  of  the  people,  the  demand 
for  immediate  universal  suffrage  is  perhaps  prema- 
ture. It  can  be  strongly  urged  that  the  education 
of  the  peasantry  ought  to  precede  self-government,  but 
education  itself  is  impossible  in  Russia  until  some  steps 
have  been  taken  on  the  road  to  constitutional  liberty.  But 
the  claims  set  forth  in  the  declaration  of  the  Committee 
should  be  the  final  object  of  any  constitutional  reform.  They 
are  the  principles  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  our  own 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  of  the  Bill  of  Rights 
embodied  in  the  constitution  of  nearly  every  State  in 
the  American  Union. 

It  is  time  that  the  world  was  aroused  to  the  enormities 
of  the  present  despotism,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  the 
doomed  millions  of  Russia,  but  for  the  sake  of  civilization 
itself,  which  may  hereafter  be  tainted  by  the  blight  of  her 
domination.  The  world  should  speak  with  one  voice,  and 


144  Slav  or  Saxon, 

tell  the  autocracy  that  one  hundred  millions  of  human 
beings  can  no  longer  remain  subject  to  the  caprices  of  a 
single  tyrant,  that  the  light  of  knowledge  can  no  longer 
be  darkened  over  one  sixth  of  the  world  by  the  selfishness 
of  a  single  ruler.  The  Russian  Government  will  never 
cease  to  be  a  menace  to  the  civilized  world,  it  will  never 
stay  its  march  of  aggrandizement,  until  it  ceases  to  be  a 
purely  military  power  ;  and  this  it  will  not  do  until  the 
autocracy  gives  way  to  a  constitution,  until  there  is  popular 
representation,  not  only  for  local  affairs,  but  for  general 
purposes  of  state.  When  the  masses  of  the  people  are 
admitted  to  a  share  in  controlling  the  foreign  policy  of 
Russia,  then  may  we  hope  that  the  policy  of  conquest,  so 
little  profitable  to  the  masses,  will  be  abandoned;  but  it 
will  not  cease,  so  long  as  a  single  individual  can  direct  the 
course  of  the  nation,  and  prosecute  war  for  his  personal 
glory  and  aggrandizement. 

Great  is  the  advance  of  human  progress  in  those  com- 
munities where  voluntary  co-operation  and  free  industrial 
activity  have  taken  the  place  of  the  stern  methods  of  mili- 
tary subjugation,  but  this  progress  can  go  on  in  safety 
only  where  the  general  tendency  of  humanity  is  in  the 
same  direction.  The  military  power  of  Germany  is  a  bar 
to  the  complete  industrial  development  of  France.  The 
converse  is  just  as  true.  No  nation  on  the  continent  can 
disarm  while  its  neighbor  remains  a  great  military  power. 
So,  too,  the  world  can  never  become  completely  devoted 
to  peace  and  industry  while  the  military  power  of  Russia 
continues  to  increase.  Sword  must  be  met  with  sword, 
army  with  army.  The  revolving  wheels  of  industry  afford 


Conclusion.  145 

no  protection  against  the  bayonets  of  the  invader.  The 
destruction  of  the  life  of  the  sovereign  may  be  unjustifia- 
ble under  any  circumstances,  but  we  must  not  forget  that 
it  was  only  attempted  when  other  means  were  found  im- 
possible, by  which  to  secure  that  constitutional  mode  of 
righting  the  wrongs  of  Russia  which  is  possessed  by  every 
other  people  in  the  civilized  world.  It  is  not  likely  that 
even  this  means  will  long  prove  wholly  unsuccessful. 
Where  the  ranks  of  the  revolutionists  are  recruited  each 
year  by  young  men  and  women  who  are  willing  to  sacri- 
fice life,  liberty,  and  reputation  in  an  effort  to  obtain  free- 
dom for  others  as  well  as  for  themselves,  it  is  not  likely 
that  they  will  always  fail.  It  is  not  probable  that  many 
sovereigns  of  Russia  will,  in  succession,  desire  to  fill  the 
role  of  autocrat  and  conqueror  with  the  sword  of  Damo- 
cles forever  over  their  heads.  Either  from  conviction  or 
through  fear,  the  entering  wedge  of  freedom  will,  sooner 
or  later,  be  driven  into  the  autocracy,  and  the  time  when 
liberty  will  be  granted,  and  the  measure  of  it  which  shall 
be  given  to  the  people,  are  the  things  which  will  finally 
fix  the  limits  of  Russian  conquest.  However  much  we 
may  reprobate  the  methods  of  the  revolutionists,  the 
cause  for  which  they  struggle — the  cause  of  constitutional 
liberty — is  our  own  ;  it  is  the  cause  of  the  civilization  of 
the  world. 

Our  own  interest  in  this  question  seems  to  be  very  re- 
mote. We  are  so  far  from  the  scene  of  the  conflict, 
that  it  looks  to  us  as  though  its  consequences  would 
never  reach  us.  But  if  the  great  Eastern  World,  contain- 
ing almost  the  whole  population  of  the  globe,  should  be- 


146  Slav  or  Saxon. 

come  subjected  to  the  iron  yoke  of  military  rule,  would  it 
stop  there  ?  Would  there  be  any  limit  to  the  aggressions 
of  despotism  ? 

Recent  occurrences  show  that  Russia  has  her  eye  upon 
us,  also  ;  that  she  desires,  not  indeed  our  possessions, 
nor  an  offensive  or  defensive  alliance,  which  would  be 
entirely  worthless  to  her,  but  our  moral  and  legislative 
support  for  the  perpetuation  of  her  despotism.  She  asks 
from  us  a  treaty  by  which  the  American  people  shall  sur- 
render as  fugitives  from  justice  all  enemies  of  the  Czar. 

The  autocrat,  who  forbade  the  people  of  Bulgaria  to 
punish  the  conspirators  who  kidnapped  their  beloved 
ruler  in  the  night,  demands  of  us  that  the  blow  aimed  at 
himself  shall  be  followed  by  the  extradition  of  the  offender, 
to  be  buried  alive  in  the  mines  of  Siberia,  to  be  committed 
to  the  hand  of  the  executioner,  or,  worst  of  all,  to  be  con- 
signed to  the  refined  tortures  of  the  Troubetskoi  ravelin. 
And  this  act  of  servitude  is  demanded  of  a  Republic  which 
teaches  its  children  that  resistance  to  tyrants  is  obedience 
to  God  ! 

It  is  the  last  great  despotism  on  earth,  the  only  one 
which  has  withstood  the  glare  of  modern  civilization, 
which  seeks  the  aid  of  the  foremost  champion  of  liberty 
in  forging  the  more  securely  the  fetters  which  bind  its 
slaves. 

The  result  of  our  acquiescence  will  be,  not  so  much  the 
greater  personal  security  of  the  sovereign,  as  the  moral 
sanction  which  our  support  will  give  to  the  perpetuation 
of  the  merciless  servitude  in  which  he  holds  his  hundred 
millions  of  subjects.  The  people  of  America  transformed 


Conclusion.  147 

into  the  slave-hunters  of  Muscovy  !  What  a  bulwark  for 
autocratic  power !  Shall  we  employ  the  same  breed  of 
blood-hounds  which  our  Republic  hired  a  generation  since 
to  hunt  a  few  wretched  fugitives  in  the  swamps  of  Florida? 
Is  the  lesson  of  the  past  so  soon  to  be  forgotten  ? 

And  when  some  fugitive  from  Siberian  mines — perhaps 
a  woman,  like  Olga  Lioubatovitch,  stripped  and  outraged 
by  her  brutal  convoy  of  soldiery — shall  break  away  and 
gain  our  shores  a  suppliant  (as  Bakunin  did  not  many 
years  ago),  how  blithely  shall  we,  who  are  always  prating 
of  liberty,  consign  her  once  again  to  the  tender  mercies  of 
"  Holy  Russia  "  ! 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  when  our  own  nation  was 
threatened  with  disruption,  the  late  Czar  was  the  friend  of 
the  Union,  and  the  sealed  instructions  to  his  naval  com- 
mander to  assist  the  Federal  Government  in  case  of  British 
interference  in  behalf  of  the  South,  is  still  held  in  grateful 
remembrance  by  a  large  portion  of  our  people.  Many 
Americans  are  unwilling  to  forget  the  indefensible  course 
of  England  at  that  critical  period.  On  this  account  there 
is  among  us  a  deep-seated  prejudice  against  Great  Britain 
and  in  favor  of  Russia,  and  in  the  event  of  a  conflict,  many 
Americans  would  be  likely  to  side  with  even  the  present 
despot  against  a  power  which,  in  our  time  of  trial,  was 
itself  so  faithless  to  the  cause  of  human  liberty.  It  is  in 
consequence  of  this  feeling  that  the  foregoing  pages  have 
been  written.  Ought  we  to  hold  the  people  of  England, 
not  then  fully  enfranchised,  responsible  for  the  sympathies 
of  the  ruling  classes  at  that  time  ?  Ought  we  now  to  ex- 
hibit, in  this  unreasoning  manner,  a  sentimental  friendship 


148  Slav  or  Saxon. 

for  the  government  of  Russia,  on  account  of  the  acts  of  a 
former  ruler,  dictated  manifestly  by  selfish  motives  ?  It 
is  the  Russian  people,  and  not  the  despot,  to  whom  we 
should  extend  our  sympathy. 

Whatever  moral  force  will  aid  that  people  against  the 
power  which  oppresses  them,  the  Americans  should  not 
withhold.  It  was  the  dynasty  of  the  Bourbons  which 
helped  us  in  our  war  of  independence,  but  what  American 
would  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Bourbons  against  the 
people  of  France  ?  The  cause  of  liberty  is  our  cause, 
wherever  it  appears  in  the  world.  Her  friends  are  our 
friends,  her  enemies  are  our  enemies.  Wherever  a  voice 
is  lifted,  whether  from  the  bogs  of  Ireland,  the  valleys  of 
Bulgaria,  or  the  snows  of  Siberia,  in  protest  against  the 
chain  which  enthralls,  let  it  be  known  throughout  the 
world  that  the  heart  of  America  beats  in  sympathy  with 
that  voice  ;  that  no  difference  in  race,  or  creed,  or  tongue, 
can  sever  that  great  bond  which  joins  together  all  the 
children  of  liberty. 


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